Baylor soccer (2-0) fought out a 2-1 overtime victory over Wyoming (0-1) on Sunday evening at Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field.
It was another overwhelming Baylor advantage in shots (27-5) and corner kicks (7-0), but the stout defense and opportunistic offense of the Cowgirls pushed the Bears to the brink.
With only five total shots, Wyoming put four of those on goal, including the single goal in the 22nd minute by Brittney Stark to tie the match and force the extra time.
For Baylor, goalkeeper Hannah Parrish allowed her first goal of the season, going two full exhibition matches, Friday’s regular season match, and 22 minutes into Sunday’s match before showing a dent in her armor. In one of the biggest plays of the match, Parrish earned a huge one-on-one, breakaway sae just 1:09 into the overtime period to keep the Cowgirls from stealing the victory and preserving the Bears’ chances.
The Baylor offense struck first in the 16th minute, with a Julie James headers bouncing out to Aline De Lima who passed it across to Jackie Crowther, netting the first goal for the Bears.
After the Cowgirls tied the match, the two teams stayed locked in the 1-1 tie through to the final minute of the first overtime period.
Just moments after pair of offside calls against the Bears, including one that erased a Crowther header goal that could’ve ended the match, the Cowgirls were whistled for a foul just a few feet outside of the penalty box.
De Lima roped in a beautiful attempt on the set piece that Georgia Rowntree, the Wyoming goalkeeper, narrowly punched out of the goal.
Her save ended up bouncing away from the defense and directly in front of Crowther who sent home her second goal of the match and delivered the win for the Bears.
NOTES
*Baylor (27 shots) has now outshot its opponents 65-10 in its two opening matches.
*Jackie Crowther (2 goals) scored the fourth and fifth goals of her career, her first two in the 2017 season.
*Aline De Lima (2 assists) scored her first two points of the 2017 season, totaling the first two assists of her BU career.
*Julie James (1 assist) made it two-straight matches with an assist, bringing her total for 2017 up to two.
*Ally Henderson made her debut for the Baylor squad, starting the match and totaling 86 minutes on the pitch.
*Baylor had six players play all 99 minutes in the match, including Hannah Parrish, Precious Akanyirige, Kylie Ross, Sarah King, Julie James, and Aline De Lima.
STAT OF THE MATCH
2014 – the last time the Bears started off the season at 2-0, hoping to continue their hot streak as they move on to the first road matches of the season.
QUOTES OF THE MATCH
“I was really happy with that. That’s what you want. You want your kids to show up and play against kids who show up and play. That was a fun one.” – Baylor head coach Paul Jobson
“We’re all running in there, that’s what we do. Our set pieces are our game. So we get in there, we get something on it. I saw it hit the crossbar and coming back. I turned and looked at Precious, and I saw like three people in the goal, and I thought, ‘Well, hit it as hard as I can and hope that it goes past what it needs to go past.’ And that’s ultimately what I did. It was unlucky that it hit the crossbar the first time, but we’re all there to finish it. If it’s not me, it’s someone else, because that’s what we’re going to be there for.” – Baylor junior Jackie Crowther, on the golden goal game winner
“It’s amazing, like no words to describe the feeling. It just seems like the work that we’ve been putting in practice is paying off. God is being amazing. I don’t know what His purpose is for this team, I just feel something really special from Him for this team, and I love to be a part it. And that was a great feeling. We all know that we fought really hard. We were tired, but we kept going and we got the result.” - Baylor senior Aline De Lima
WHAT’S NEXT
Baylor hits the road for the first time in 2017, trekking to Houston for matchups with Rice on August 25 and Houston Baptist on August 27.
