By Daniel Wallace
Staff Writer
Tied at 1-1, the Baylor soccer team jogged into the locker room disappointed in its first half of play.
Jogging back onto the field for the second half, the team came out poised, confident and ready to dominate.
On Sunday, Baylor (3-0-1) remained undefeated in a 5-1 victory over the UTSA Roadrunners (0-3-0) at Betty Lou Mays Field.
The first 45 minutes of the game was unorthodox Baylor soccer.
“We didn’t come out the way Baylor soccer plays,” junior Dana Larsen said. “We came out a little flat, a little bit loose on our marks.”
The slow start put Baylor in a position it had not been in all season: trailing. In the ninth minute, the Roadrunners struck first on a header that found its way into the high left corner of the goal to give UTSA a 1-0 lead.
The lone first-half goal for Baylor came in the 21st minute when Larsen netted the ball to the far post with an assist from sophomore Karlee Summey to tie the game.
Although her team was tied at the break, head coach Marci Jobson was not pleased, and she voiced her frustrations to the team.
“We came together as a team and talked about it,” Larsen said. “We’re like, ‘We are going to do this for each other, coach and just for Baylor.’”
And they did just that. Summey scored the first of four second-half goals in the 54th minute on a left-footed laser from 25 yards out that bounced off the crossbar in the upper-right corner and into the goal for the 2-1 advantage.
Things got exciting in the 73rd minute when freshman Alexa Wilde used her head to bounce in a perfectly placed corner kick from freshman Justine Hovden, to give Baylor the 3-1 lead.
Six minutes later on another corner kick, Wilde did it again. Summey’s kick was placed high in the center of the box and Wilde was there to jump over the defenders and knock the ball into the back of the next on another powerful header.
Wilde became the first freshman to score multiple goals in a game since Hanna Gilmore in 2009.
“I am so excited for Alexa to get a little more experience and come in,” Larsen said. “She’s been dominating,”
Coach Jobson gave her high praise as well.
“Alexa is our best player in front of the goal,” Jobson said. “So if she’s in the game, she’s dangerous.”
Wilde was elated about the team’s strong second half performance and that she was able to punch in two goals herself.
“It was awesome,” Wilde said. “The corner kicks I got though were perfect serves from Justine and Summey. I couldn’t have asked for any better serves. I was just glad to put them in. But after, I felt pretty awesome.”
The fourth goal of the half was Larsen’s second of the game, sealing up the 5-1 Baylor victory. UTSA was unable to attempt a shot the entire second half, as Baylor took control of the ball position. The Roadrunners were outshot 23-0 in the second half and 33-5 for the entire game.
Baylor soccer plays again this Friday at Louisville.
