When Hannah Bell’s shot hit the back of the net for her first goal in an Auburn uniform, there was one player over on the Auburn bench even more excited than everyone else:
It was the player she replaced.
Auburn’s redshirt senior forward Dylan Driver started Auburn’s win over Jacksonville State on Sunday, and scored a goal, before she was substituted off about 30 minutes into the game, with Bell replacing her.
Bell did her one better: The senior transfer from East Texas A&M came on and scored two goals within six minutes to put Auburn up by three, in a match the Tigers went on to win 5-0.
But instead of being bitter about being one-upped on the same spot on the field, Driver jumped for joy — and that camaraderie between Auburn’s two battling forwards has surely played some part in how effective they’ve been in the first two games of the season.
“I think I was maybe screaming the loudest on the bench,” Driver said, of Bell’s first goal. “And if you look back at the videos, I was jumping up and down like a crazy person. I am so excited for her. Just seeing the work she’s been putting in at practice, I love seeing it pay off.”
Driver, in the same way, could have been bitter when Bell was brought onto campus in the first place.