Troy Drops Heartbreaker in Opener

Friday, August 18

Troy, Ala.

7 P.M.

Troy University

0-1

Mercer

1-0

Mercer

Troy

8/18/2017 10:25:00 PM | Soccer

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By: Wes Johnson

Box Score (PDF) | Photo Gallery

TROY, Alabama – Troy's defense stood firm until the 84^th minute when Mercer was able to breakthrough and down the Trojans 1-0 in front of 1,114 fans – the second-largest crowd in Troy soccer history – at the Troy Soccer Complex on Friday.

The Bears (1-0) caught Troy in the run of play and a spot-on pass from Jasmine Spence found Caroline Smith, who slammed home the game's lone goal with just over six minutes left on the clock.

The Trojans (0-1) took the lion's share of the shots on the night outpacing Mercer 13-4 in the category. In fact, of the Bears four shots in the game just the one was on target. Amber Harless led the way for the Troy attack with three shot. Qarli Stone had two opportunities in the game, both were saved.

Samantha Jacob and Amber Harless arguably had the best chances for the Trojans. In the ninth minute, Jacob pick up a failed clearance just outside the box and hit a laser that was saved by the Mercer keeper, one of five for the Bears. In the 25^th minute, Harless received the ball with her back to goal, spun on the defender with one touch and fired a shot that sailed just right of the far post.

QUOTABLE
"We were too deep and too wide apart, we've got to do better there, but it happens," Troy head coach Ged O'Connor said. "We had a number of individual breakdowns, but we can work on that. Number one is that we gave the ball away too easily and then we're caught sprinting back to defend. We learned tonight, now we've got an even bigger game, which is the next game."

UP NEXT
Troy travels to Gainesville, Fla., to take on No. 7 Florida. Kickoff is set for noon (CT) and will be broadcast on SEC Network+; it will be the first ever meeting between the schools. Links to live stats and video can be found at TroyTrojans.com.

NOTEWORTHY
• Troy took 13 shots in the game, five were on target, while Mercer managed just four shots.

• Ally Bayer and Abby Donnelly made their first career starts, while Maria Kaschalk entered as a sub to make her collegiate debut. Transfer Lauren Aldrich also started the game to log her first minutes as a Trojan.

• The 1,114 in attendance marked the second-largest crowd in Troy soccer history trailing only the 1,365 that came out for the South Alabama match in 2015.