STATESBORO - Texas State's Mady Soumare broke a scoreless deadlock with a goal in the 60th minute to give the visiting Bobcats a 1-0 Sun Belt Conference women's soccer victory over host Georgia Southern on Thursday evening at Bo Pitts Field.

In its final trip to Statesboro before departing for the PAC 12 next season, Texas State (4-2-3, 1-0-1 SBC) picked up its second straight win over the Eagles (2-6-2, 0-1-1). Georgia Southern returns to action on Sunday, traveling to James Madison to take on the Dukes at 1 p.m., facing the team that knocked off the Bobcats in last season's Sun Belt Tournament championship match.

Georgia Southern held a 7-2 edge in shots in a defensive-minded first half where each goalkeeper - Katie Oakley for the Eagles and Brooklyn Escobar for the Bobcats - made just one save. 

The game broke 15 minutes into the second half as an attack by the Bobcats resulted in a give-and-go situation from Helen Alormenu and Katrin Agustsdottir at the top of the box. The pass from the endline then found Soumare wide open in front of the net for the easy finish and her second goal of the season.

The Eagles chased the equalizer over the game's final 30 minutes, putting a couple of shots on goal; one from Meredith Pugh in the 68th minute and then one by Paisley Cathey in the 90th minute, but Escobar made the saves to preserve the victory.

"I thought we defended very well throughout the night," Georgia Southern head women's soccer coach Chris Adams said. "It's what quality strikers do - scoring goals without having to get a lot of chances. 10 wiggles free to create the opportunity and finds 9 in front of the goal. They're both elite strikers. We outshot them 12 to 11, but we weren't able to capitalize on our chances, so we've just got to keep going.

"They're picked second in the league," Coach Adams said of the Bobcats. "They lost in the final, and they beat us 3-0 last year, so I think there's marked progress, but obviously it wasn't the result we were looking for at home. Now it makes it that much more critical that we get points on the road this weekend at James Madison."

Both keepers made four saves on the night and Texas State held a 6-2 edge in corner kicks. Georgia Southern was whistled for six fouls and was offsides three times, while Texas State was whistled for five fouls and one offsides.