PARIS, Texas – LSU Eunice Women's Soccer continued its strong start to the fall campaign with a 2-1 win at Paris JC on Thursday.  It is the first of 12 conference games for the Bengals (2-0).
 
The two sides were knotted in a scoreless game after one half despite LSU Eunice peppering the Paris goal with six shots on goal in the first half.  The Bengals would finally break the gridlock, literally turning their defense into offense.  Michaela Droptini (Beaumont, TX, Vidor HS) sent a long pass down the right sideline to a streaking Addison Webster (Houma, LA, H.L. Bourgeois HS).  The freshman winger evaded a pair of Dragon defenders before cutting towards the box and feeding Madison Paujaud (Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada, High Mowing Waldorf School) from the opposite side at point blank range for goal.
 
The 52nd minute go-ahead tally was met less than 20 minutes later by a Paris equalizer, poking a bouncing ball off a free kick past the LSUE defense.
 
That would just set the stage for some late game heroics by Paujaud and the Bengals.  It was once again the backline setting the table for a goal after Arndís Dóra Ólafsdóttir (Hafnarfjörður, Iceland, Fjölbrautaskólinn í Garðabæ) intercepted an errant pass, pushing the ball past the midfield line before connecting with Paujaud in stride on a through ball.  Paujaud did the rest, racing past the Paris defenders and beating the Dragons' goalkeeper for the 83rd minute game winner.
 
It was Paujaud's second career multi-goal game of her LSUE career and her fourth game winning goal.
 
The Bengals have won their first two games to start the season for the first time in eight seasons, first coming during the 2019 campaign.  LSU Eunice is back in Texas on Saturday for a doubleheader against Northeast Texas CC to continue conference play.