In their first game after facing two of the top teams in the nation, the Golden Hurricane men’s soccer team matched up against crosstown rival Oral Roberts.
In the beginning stages of the game, the Golden Eagles pressed forward into Tulsa’s half and the Golden Hurricane had trouble keeping possession. They kept ORU from scoring though, and were able to settle into a rhythm.
Cameron Drackett started to get the offense going with a few opportunities. First, he brought the ball down on the right side, cut in and took a shot that bounced off the crossbar and out-of-bounds.
Just a few minutes later, he was on the end of a cross into the middle, but his header went wide of the goal.
Drackett was persistent, though, and shortly after scored a goal that put the Golden Hurricane on the board first. Off of a feed from Kay Duit, he was able to slot the ball home past the ORU goalkeeper from short range.
The Golden Eagles responded fifteen minutes later, as they brought an attack down the left wing, and some nice passing left Alexis Derennes able to get a shot past Tulsa goalkeeper Jake McGuire and knot the score at one each.
As Tulsa worked to regain the lead, they earned a free kick slightly offset from midfield. Geoffrey Dee sent the free kick into the box and found Bradley Bourgeois a few yards from the goal.
Bourgeois was able to head the ball into the corner of the goal to give the Golden Hurricane a 2–1 lead.
Shortly after Bourgeois gave Tulsa the lead, Drackett netted his second goal of the game to give Tulsa a more comfortable lead.
Ray Saari had the ball on the left side of the goal, and played a pass into Drackett, who was positioned towards the middle of the box.
Drackett’s one-time shot sailed past a diving ORU goalkeeper to make the score 3–1 in favor of the Golden Hurricane, which remained the score until halftime.
Tulsa continued to assert its dominance in the second half, as Juan Sanchez, Saari and Aymar Sigue all got on the scoreboard. After Sigue’s goal, Tulsa had scored five consecutive goals, and held a commanding lead at 6–1.
The Golden Eagles were able to score one final goal with ten minutes remaining, but it wasn’t enough to threaten the end result, as Tulsa claimed a 6–2 win.
The Golden Hurricane have defeated their crosstown rivals each of the past two years, the first two years they have resumed the rivalry since 2008.
Head Coach Tom McIntosh said after the win; “we started out a little flat, I think we were still a little fatigued from last weekend, but we got our first goal off a set piece and then Bradley’s goal on a set piece so we took advantage of those moments.”
“It was good to score goals. We’ve been a bit unlucky in some of our games by hitting the crossbars and posts, but tonight we were able to score six and created a couple of other good chances.”
On Sunday afternoon, the Golden Hurricane got a hard-fought win against Portland.
In the first half, Tulsa controlled the majority of possession, but the Portland defense prevented them from creating many quality scoring chances.
Portland, however, were able to make the most of the possession they had, as they struck late in the half. They played a nice 1-2 combo in the middle, and Erik Edwardson was able to slip the ball around McGuire to give Portland the lead.
In the second half, Tulsa was able to knot the score at 1 each when Bradley Bourgeois scored, heading in a cross.
From there, the game became very physical, and fouls started to pile up. At one point, the referee had to separate the two teams to prevent a fight, though Bourgeois did push a Portland player and was shown a yellow card for it.
Four yellow cards were shown over the course of the game.
As the game was heading into the closing stages, Erik Edwardson scored again to put Portland back in the lead with ten minutes remaining. He bent down and headed the ball in from just in front of the goal.
The Golden Hurricane pushed on, though, and scored an equalizing goal with only three minutes left. Zach Jackson sent a cross into the middle, and Miguel Velasquez was able to convert to tie the score at 2–2.
The score remained tied at the end of regulation, and the game headed into overtime. In the first overtime period, Tulsa commanded possession, and pushed hard in Portland’s end of the field.
Seven minutes into the period, Quinton Duncan sent a cross into the box. Juan Sanchez headed it over Portland’s goalkeeper, giving Tulsa the sudden-death, golden-goal victory at 3–2.
After the game Coach McIntosh talked about the tough-fought victory.
“I thought we showed tremendous resiliency and toughness. We played well in the first half, but just gave up that once chance on a counter attack.”
“It was one of those games where we carried the game, but had to chase the score when we gave up that first one. I was proud of the guys for coming back twice and showing toughness on a Sunday afternoon.”
With the victories, Tulsa moves to 3–2–1 on the season.
Their next game is on Saturday, when they travel to Creighton to play the No. 1 ranked Bluejays. First kick is at 7:00.
