Men’s Soccer
After losing a couple of tough conference games, the Golden Hurricane men’s soccer team played their best game of the year against No. 6 Creighton and followed that up with a conference victory against UCF.
The gameplan against the Creighton Bluejays was well-defined from the start. Tulsa put pressure on the defenders, pressing high up the field to keep Creighton from being comfortable in possession. When the Golden Hurricane had possession, they tried to find Matt Puig over the top of the defense.
The strategy worked well for much of the game. There was one big breakdown, though, and it cost the lead. Off of a free kick, Creighton passed the ball a few times before Ricky Lopez-Espin was able to take a few uncontested touches to take a shot that got past goalkeeper Jake McGuire. The rest of the second half was back-and-forth, and the score remained 1-0 at halftime.
In the second half, Tulsa started to take control of the game. They held most of the possession, and created many chances that just came up short. With five minutes left, Alejandro Chavez got the ball near the top left corner of the goal box. He faked inside, took a touch outside, and drilled a shot into the bottom right corner of the goal to tie the game. As overtime seemed imminent, Quinton Duncan found Matt Puig over the top of the defense again, and this time he was able to beat the Creighton goalkeeper, and Tulsa hung on to the epic comeback victory.
For their next game, Tulsa was back against a conference opponent, UCF. In this game, Tulsa had the majority of control and pressure, but the scoreline kept close throughout the game. Neither team was able to get a goal in the first half,
In the second half, the goals started to flow. UCF started it off with the first goal fifteen minutes into the half. Lucas Bueno leveled the score within ten minutes for the Golden Hurricane. Then, Matt Puig knocked in a goal to take the lead with ten minutes remaining in the game. The defense wasn’t able to hold on to that lead, though, as UCF tied the game at 2-2 with four minutes left. The scoring wasn’t quite over yet, though, as Rollie Rocha scored a long goal to give Tulsa the 3-2 win.
After the pair of victories this week, Tulsa is now 7-4-2 (2-2 American Athletic Conference) on the season. Their next game is against local rivals Oral Roberts on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.
Women’s Soccer
The Golden Hurricane women’s soccer team suffered a large defeat at the hand of the Memphis Tigers this week, falling 4-0.
Throughout the game, Memphis held the upper hand. The Tigers put up a crazy 31 shots, 10 of which were on target. It took them fifteen minutes to find the back of the net, and twenty minutes later they added another. Tulsa went into the break down 2-0.
In the second half, the Tigers quickly expanded their lead, scoring two goals back-to-back in the first ten minutes of the half. The final score was 4-0.
On the season, Tulsa owns a 7-7-1 (3-2 American Athletic Conference) record. Their next game is another road game, this time at Houston. The kickoff is at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday.
