Reyna Reyes Leads Alabama Soccer Over No. 24 LSU, 1-0

The Crimson Tide needed a full 90 minutes to do it, but in defeating LSU it picked up its first win to a ranked team this season.

Alabama athletics

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It was the most physical game this season. Easily. Both sides, both Alabama and LSU, tried—over and over and over—asserting itself via the right and left elbows, but to no avail until late.

Too late, that is, for LSU.

"Oh man, I just told them how incredibly proud I was. The effort they put forth is the exact effort we need day-in and day-out, and that's what going to give you the opportunity to be successful," Alabama coach Wes Hart said. "Especially in this league, we've seen it more often than not what can happen."

The No. 24 Tigers made the trip to Tuscaloosa after enduring a two-game losing streak, one which dropped the team from the nation's Top 5. 

Alabama, meanwhile, well, it needed a break and a win to get above .500 in SEC play. It'd take a while, but the Crimson Tide grabbed a much-needed win at home.  

And its first win to a ranked team this season, thanks to midfielder Reyna Reyes, among other Tide players who contributed to an eventual, celebratory postgame. 

To begin action, Alabama pressed whichever Tigers held possession. Once that was unsustainable, however, its right-to-left crosses gave LSU some trouble but nothing worth a scoreboard change. 

"It wasn't our prettiest soccer game, but we fought and competed. They have some dangerous players and we shut those players down," Hart said.

Tonight's hero, Reyes, initiated much of the Tide's attack and led the squad into a scoreless halftime break. Upon the halftime whistle, though, the teams had combined to commit 14 fouls, six by Alabama and eight by LSU, as the physicality was, hmm, evident. 

"We knew coming into this game that it was going to be a tough battle. And we knew we had to fight the whole," Reyes said. "But that's what we did, and we executed it very well and came out with a win."

For the away side, anyways, much of the frustration was subsequent to Tide defender Sasha Pickard not only running step-for-step with LSU attacks in breakaway chances, but also physically altering the pace of play with timely, subtle shoves so not to free up space in the Alabama defense. 

"Sasha was a freaking animal in the back. All four backs were excellent," Hart said. "I could go through every player on the team. Everyone was excellent."

LSU led in shots on goal at the break with a 3-1 advantage, though Alabama tallied four total just as the Tigers did. 

Same story, different half in act two: Neither side conceding anything despite freeing up opposing forwards and midfielders creating chances. Oh, and the fouls.

It took until the 85th minute for something, or someone, to give, and that player was LSU goalkeeper Mollee Swift who misplayed a shot by Reyes and allowed the ball to skip into the back of the net. 

"I don't know, I think that ball just had a crazy spin. But hey, a goal is a goal," Reyes said.

A look at that game winner against No. 24 LSU 😍#RollTide pic.twitter.com/mBHqmLntOD

— Alabama Soccer (@AlabamaSoccer) October 2, 2021

Match all but sealed, thanks to Reyes second goal of the season and, absolutely, a brutal error by Swift. Regardless how it happened, Alabama overcome a testy battle to defeat its first ranked team of the season.

The Crimson Tide improve to 7-6 and 3-2 in-conference.

What's ahead, meanwhile, is a trip to Fayetteville to play Arkansas Thursday night at 6 p.m. CT.