PENSACOLA, Fla. | Alabama State closed training camp by scoring a pair of goals late to pull away from Mobile for a 3-1 victory in its exhibition contest at the Escambia Park Stadium inside the Ashton Brosnaham Athletic Complex on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Lady Hornets, playing shorthanded on the day, and Mobile split the contest into three 30-minute periods as the temperature rose to 97 degrees in the Florida panhandle with the heat index reaching as high as 112 degrees during the contest.
 
The two teams battled to a draw through the first 30 minutes after Camila Jimenez hit a shot to the far post from the left side from about 20 yards out on a pass from Madison Chambers for the first goal of the match to give Alabama State a 1-0 lead in the third minute. The redshirt sophomore scored her first goal since the 2021 season after missing last season due to a preseason injury a year after being named the SWAC Freshman of the Year.
 
Mobile was able to tie the match up in the 11th minute of the match, and the score stayed that way until the 80th minute when the Lady Hornets took the lead for good on a corner kick. The ball off the foot of Jimenez found the head of preseason all-conference selection Katelyn Walerczyk for the 2-1 lead.
 
Alabama State put the game away in the 83rd minute after a scrum in front of the goal when the ball found the foot of Grace Norbury, who then fed Kensley Simmons for the final goal of the game.
 
Simmons, along with all-conference selection Kassandra Schoen and McKinley Hacker, combined for three saves filling in as goalkeepers during the match.
 
Up Next
Alabama State opens regular season play on the road Friday night at Jacksonville (Fla.) at 5 pm (CT), before facing Faulkner across town in Montgomery on Sunday, August 20.
 
Quotable from head coach Jodie Smith
Overall thoughts…
"I was really pleased with our effort. We played a lot of players in really tough conditions and we were limited due to some injuries. Each 30 I thought we did a lot of positive things, and in between the last period we talked about how to treat it mentally and not concede a goal or take the game, and I was really pleased about that."
 
You end camp with a win, how important was this weekend…
"Things get real next Friday. We had a good team weekend, we came down yesterday and bonded. We got a good team win and scored some nice goals along the way to do it against a very good team. For me and the team moving forward, it is positive."
 
In the past, you have gotten up and had to hold on. Today you put a team away late…
"There have been times that we have had the game and didn't put it away like we need to, and today we scored a great goal late to take the lead before a counterattack to seal the deal."

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