Alabama Soccer Finds Revenge in 2-1 Win Over Auburn in SEC Tournament

The Crimson Tide lands 97th-minute winner to defeat rival Tigers in the first round of the SEC Tournament

Alabama Athletics

The Alabama soccer team found revenge in the second installment of the Iron Bowl of soccer, defeating Auburn 2-1 in the first round of the SEC Tournament. The win was Alabama’s first over the Tigers since 2011.

Freshman midfielder Macy Clem scored the golden goal game-winner in the 97th minute, finishing off an assist from Carlee Giammona.

“Aside from about a 15-minute spell at the end of the first half, I thought we completely dominated this game,” Crimson Tide coach Wes Hart said in a release. “I loved the energy we started the game with. We were a bit unfortunate not to get another one early. Credit to Auburn though, they found a way to hang around. We will certainly enjoy this for a few hours, but we’ve got bigger things to accomplish while we are here.”

Alabama will play the No. 2 seed Vanderbilt on Tuesday at 1 p.m.

Capitalizing on a fast start, Alabama found the back of the net in the 8th minute, through junior forward Casey Wertz, assisted by junior midfielder Kaley Verpaele. 

Auburn had an equalizer in the 30th minute thanks to Jessie Gerow, with both teams failing to find a winner throughout the remainder of regulation.

Alabama outshot the Tigers 22-13, placing 12 of those shots on goal. The Crimson Tide also held a 7-3 advantage on corner kicks.

“We’ve won a lot of games, but this one is definitely the most special and means the most to us, especially to Auburn,” junior midfielder Taylor Morgan said. “We’ve been in a lot of overtime this year and that’s kind of where we thrive. 

"They might have won the Iron Bowl in the regular season, but we won the Iron Bowl in the SEC Tournament.”

Freshman goalkeeper AJ Crooks recorded five saves throughout the contest, extending her school record of most total wins for a freshman goalkeeper to six, including five SEC victories. 

Alabama lost to Auburn at home last week 3-2 in double-overtime.

This is only the second time in program history that Alabama (10-6-3) has won an SEC first-round tournament game to continue to the quarterfinals. I

It will be just Alabama’s third appearance in the quarterfinals.

“We’ve been in this position with Auburn before and the last time we played them, it just didn’t go in our favor,” Clem said. “There was a point in the beginning of the overtime where I was like ‘I have a feeling we are going to win this game.’ I hate penalty kicks and I know everyone else does so I knew we just had to get it done. We are ready to take on Vanderbilt and we have a lot of adrenaline going into that game.”