After three straight losses, the Roadrunners came into Sunday’s match against Oklahoma State looking to turn their luck around. However, the Cowgirls entered the contest with a no-loss 4-0-1 record. The nationally ranked Cowgirls stood in the way of a Runners’ victory.
Throughout the early stages of the game, the Cowgirls were in control. The Cowgirls earned themselves two corner kicks and a shot that just missed wide left in the first ten minutes.
Oklahoma State had UTSA on their heels and were able to drive near the goal several times early on in the match. The Cowgirls kept the pressure up by having repeated possession of the ball.
In the 19th minute, the Cowgirls came close to a goal yet again. Anna Beffer rattled a shot off the top of the crossbar. The Cowgirls were close to scoring shortly after, but the ball was deflected by some Roadrunner defenders.
Anna Beffer scored the first goal of the contest with 15 minutes left in the first half. The ball sailed through the top left corner of the goal and UTSA goalie Michelle Cole couldn’t touch it.
With time winding down in the first half, UTSA saw an opportunity to score. Roadrunner forward Harper Luczka put a header towards the goal that just missed to the right. With under a minute left in the first half, UTSA goalie Michelle Cole managed to get her hands on two of the Cowgirls shots to keep them at bay.
With the many opportunities the Cowgirls saw, UTSA was lucky to find themselves down by only one at halftime.
During the secong half, UTSA could no longer contain the Big 12 power-house. Right away, Claire Gantzer of the Cowgirls scored a goal off of a corner kick to push their lead to two. Minutes after the first goal of the second half, Cowgirls forward Marlo Zoller scored the third goal of the game off an assist from Anna Beffer. That goal pushed the Oklahoma State lead to three.
As the match rolled along, Oklahoma State continued to dominate possession of the ball. They had a chance to increase their lead to four but the shot by Haley Woodard was saved by goalie Michelle Cole.
In the 74th minute, Woodard was able to make something happen. She dribbled the ball between two defenders and dished a nice pass to Taylor Olson who then scored for the Cowgirls, increasing their lead to four.
Shortly after, UTSA’s Luczka saw a rare opportunity, but the ball was taken from her as she approached the goal. After the change of possession, the duo of Woodard and Olson struck again to further increase their lead. Woodard faked out a couple UTSA defenders on her way to assisting Olson on the goal. With under ten minutes left to play, Taylor Olson scored her third goal of the game to earn a hat-trick.
UTSA was able to hang around with Oklahoma State for the first half of the game, but Oklahoma State was in control for most of the match.
The Cowgirls’ offense proved to be too much for the Roadrunners in the end, with UTSA giving up five second half goals.
The match finished with a lopsided final score of 6-0. The Roadrunners (1-4) look to bounce back next Friday, when they travel to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to take on the Islanders.
