MONROE, La. – Grace Ambrose scored her first goal of the season for Alcorn on Sunday afternoon as Louisiana-Monroe defeated the visiting Braves 6-1 in nonconference women's soccer action at Brown Stadium in Monroe, Louisiana.
 
Alcorn (0-2-0) got on the board late through junior forward Grace Ambrose (Aba, Nigeria), but the deficit was already too steep to overcome against a ULM side (1-0-1) that piled up 17 shots, 12 of them on target, and forced Braves goalkeepers into five saves on the afternoon.
 
The Warhawks broke the game open in a decisive 14-minute stretch of the first half.
 
Maria Thania Gealon opened the scoring in the 28th minute with an unassisted finish, and Alcorn had no time to regroup.
 
Charli Harris beat the Purple and Gold defense just 27 seconds later, assisted by Bernadett Stefan, to make it 2-0 in favor of the hosts.
 
Giulia Franco added a third in the 37th minute, and Harris struck again for her brace in the 41st off a feed from Georgina Knott and Stacey Qosja, sending ULM into the break with a commanding 4-0 lead.
 
Alcorn goalkeeper Renata Da Rosa (Montevideo, Uruguay) was peppered early and often, facing 10 shots in the first half alone while her offense could only muster two shots of its own before the intermission.
 
ULM wasted little time extending the lead out of the locker room.
 
Angela Moreno converted just two minutes after the break (45:58) off an assist from Jenni Huttunen, and Amy Sharkey made it 6-0 just three minutes later, capping the scoring for the Warhawks and putting the game out of reach.
 
To their credit, the Braves did not fold.
 
Alcorn amassed five shots in the second half and continued to press even after Bailey Perales (Fremont, Calif.) took over in goal following a substitution just after the hour mark in the contest. Perales made a key save on a Bernadett Stefan shot in the 71st minute to help keep the margin from growing further.
 
Alcorn's lone tally came in the 87th minute, when Ambrose buried an unassisted shot to get the Purple and Gold.
 
Sophomore forward Annick Zouma (Yaoundé, Cameroon) led Alcorn's offensive effort with three shots on the day, all three on frame, and was whistled for a yellow card in the 72nd minute.
 
ULM finished with a 51-49 percent edge in possession and a 6-0 advantage in offside calls, a product of how often the Warhawks' attack pushed into the final third.
 
Harris' brace paced all scorers with two goals on four shots, while Gealon and Harris combined to test Da Rosa and Perales throughout the match. Jen Handy earned the win in net for ULM, stopping two shots across 61:35 of work before giving way to Maria Heuman, who turned away two more chances in relief.
 
Da Rosa was tagged with the loss after allowing six goals on six saves in 61:35 of action.
 
Alcorn returns to the pitch Thursday, Aug. 20, when traveling to Nicholls State in Thibodaux, Louisiana, at 7 p.m.
 
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