Cougars Claim Fifth Straight PBC Championship with 4-0 Win at Flagler Sunday

St. Augustine, FL -- Columbus State scored three first half goals and added an insurance goal in the second half to blank Flagler College 4-0 on Sunday at Flagler. The win clinched the Peach Belt Conference regular-season title for the Cougars and marks the fifth consecutive year CSU has laid claim to the championship.

CSU shared its first PBC title with Clayton State back in 2005 and has since put a choke-hold on the championship trophy, winning the title outright for four straight years. There was some drama this year, however, as CSU held just a half-game lead over Armstrong Atlantic State heading into Sunday's finale. A loss would give the title to the Pirates, but two first-half goals from Stephanie Parrish pretty much quashed any chances of a loss and secured the win for the Cougars.

With the title, Columbus State has pretty much dominated the fall in the PBC. The women's soccer title joins those already won by the men's and women's cross-country teams in 2009. The other fall championships - men's soccer and volleyball - are not played by CSU.

Parrish got her first goal in the 26th minute of play. She beat the Flagler defense and dribbled in one-on-one with keeper Christie Ruether and poked her shot in for the 1-0 lead. The goal was the ninth of the season for Parrish and came at the 25:57 mark.

Kate Walton doubled the score for CSU 10 minutes later, picking up her fourth goal of the year. She took a pass from Emily Husted in the center of the box and hammered it home from 12 yards out to make it 2-0 at the 36:02 mark of the half. Parrish followed less than a minute later with her second goal, this time taking a pass from Leslie Matthews and dribbling it in for the shot from seven yards out to make it 3-0 at the 37:01 mark.

CSU would carry that 3-0 lead into halftime, thanks in part to four Kelly Nimmo saves in the first 45 minutes. She would give way to Mary Mancin in the second half, and Mancin collected a pair of saves as the defense limited Flagler to six shots.

Kayla Brown got her first goal of the season in the 54th minute to put an exclamation point on the win. Brown, who has been a part of the CSU back line all season, has recently been seeing time in an attacking position and made the most of it Sunday, taking a pass from K.C. MacEachern and shooting from 17 yards out.

CSU held a 21-12 advantage in shots for the contest, and also had a commanding 11-3 lead in corner kicks. Each team's goalkeepers had six total saves, while Flagler held a slight advantage in fouls by a 5-4 count. There were no cautions or ejections.

CSU, as the top seed, will host a first-round PBC Tournament matchup for the fifth straight year. The Cougars will host Montevallo, ironically its last regular-season home opponent on October 28, in the first round game on Tuesday at 6 PM. Montevallo comes in as the eighth-seed in the tournament. Other games will feature #2 AASU hosting #7 UNC Pembroke, #3 Lander hosting #6 Flagler, and #4 GCSU hosting #5 North Georgia.

The winners of the four contests on Tuesday will move on to the PBC Soccer Championships on November 6-8 in Evans, GA, at Blanchard Woods Park.