By Collin Bryant | Sports Writer
The Baylor women’s soccer team (2-0) continued its season Sunday evening, ultimately beating the Wyoming Cowgirls 2-1 in overtime.
The Bears dominated possession in the first half with their offense and defense seeming to be at the right place at the right time, tallying 13 shots on goal compared to Wyoming’s three. The Bears came out with high energy, scoring early with a little less than 30 minutes left. Junior forward Jackie Crowther scored the first goal, with an assist from senior midfielder Aline De Lima.
Crowther said it was a team effort that resulted in the go-ahead goal.
“Aline dummied it, and I saw it slide over to me and I almost didn’t expect It to get through,” Crowther said. “But as a player you kind of always assume the ball is going to fall on you somehow. Ultimately, definitely a team effort from the slot in the middle.”
While the Bears continued to play aggressively, the Cowgirls continued to push. Changing the pace in which they began attacking, the Cowgirls seamlessly put more pressure on the Bears going into the half. The Bears continued to hold them off until a defensive collapse in the box, something Baylor head coach Paul Jobson hopes his team will avoid in the future.
“There were a couple of breakdowns that started even up further field that put us in that situation, were still working on our back line,” Jobson said.“There were some times we talked about at half time, and that there were times that we needed to step in a little harder and make some tackle. We didn’t give up on the play, but I think we could have went a bit harder through some of that.”
The Bears quickly hopped back to work, pushing the ball in transition, but to no avail. While the Bears had a few more opportunities, they ended up being shut down, trading punches back and forth in possession, with the half ending 1-1.
Going into halftime tied, Jobson praised the leadership of his energetic mid fielder Aline De Lima, who once again showed not only her talent on the field, but her leadership off.
“You just see things that she does that change the game. She takes on a great leadership role, just things that she says,” Jobson said. “I’m not going to tell you what she said but it got everybody going and it came from the right person at the right time.”
The Bears came out of the half, once again fired up and energized and dominating possession with 12 more shots on goal. However, with the Bears fouls tremendously outweighing the Cowgirls both teams’ offenses seamed stagnant. With a few close calls, neither team was able to produce another score during regulation.
With only 10 minutes in the overtime, the Bears continued to push possession, scoring early on a header by Crowther. However, the goal was negated due to an offsides penalty, forcing to play to continue.
With less than a minute on the clock, once again with an assist from De Lima, Crowther dashed the hearts of the Cowgirls with a right foot goal kick off the cross bar.
Crowther said it was the resilience of her team and how they refocused after having an earlier header in goal called offside that made the difference in the end.
“It’s like those kinds of moments we knew the clock was ticking,” Crowther said. “We’ve been in these overtime games before, and I know how it feels, overtime games suck.”
The Baylor women’s soccer team will look to continue its winning streak against Rice at 7 p.m. Friday in Houston.
