Men’s soccer
This week, the Golden Hurricane men’s soccer team played their annual derby match against local rival Oral Roberts University.
Tulsa controlled the pace of the game in the first half. Twenty minutes in, Munashe Raranje took a beautiful arching shot with his left foot that beat the goalkeeper, giving Tulsa the 1–0 lead. The Golden Hurricane defense kept the Golden Eagles’ offense from taking a single shot on goal for the entire half.
As the second half wore it, it appeared as though Tulsa still had control of the game. This quickly proved false, as Oral Roberts were able to tie the game. A shot bounced off of the crossbar, and no defender followed the next Oral Roberts player, who was able to put in the easy rebound goal.
In the last twelve minutes of the game, each team scored two goals. ORU struck first off of a free kick. Some defensive confusion in the box led to the scorer having an easy touch past the goalkeeper to give the Golden Eagles the 2–1 lead. Just two minutes later, Tulsa responded with a goal of their own. Junior Rollie Rocha beat multiple defenders and earned a free kick on the side of the box. Sophomore Vincent Pedace took the free kick, sending it to the other side of the goal box, where freshman Koray Easterling was waiting to shoot it home.
With five minutes remaining in the game, ORU earned another free kick. The free kick was taken as a shot.
Tulsa senior goalkeeper Jake McGuire caught the ball, but was questionably ruled to have stepped back into the goal with the ball in his hands, giving the lead back to ORU. Quickly trying to even the score again, Tulsa pushed forward and drew a penalty kick. Freshman Matt Puig converted the opportunity, knotting the score again, this time at 3–3.
The two overtime periods passed scoreless. It was clear in those periods that ORU was ready to accept a draw and Tulsa was pushing for victory, as the ball was in the ORU half for most of the overtime. Tulsa couldn’t get a goal, though, and the game ended in a tie.
The Golden Hurricane returned to conference opponents with their game on Saturday, when they travelled to face Temple. Junior Kay Duit scored five minutes into the game to give Tulsa the early lead.
To continue the theme of the week, Temple came back. They scored a goal with just five minutes remaining in the game, leading to a 1–1 draw.
Tulsa is now 7–4–4 (2–2–1 American Athletic Conference) on the season. They face Cincinnati on the road on Saturday night.
Women’s soccer
Tulsa used a strong second half to take control of their road game against Houston.
The first half was fairly balanced. Tulsa took the lead in the 25th minute on a good individual effort by midfielder Rachel Thun. A few minutes after the goal, the game was delayed because of lightning. When play resumed, Houston scored an equalizing goal to head into halftime at 1-1.
In the second half, the Golden Hurricane took over. Goals by Anna Williams, Christina Holmes, and another by Thun gave them a comfortable lead that they saw through until the end.
For the final game of their road trip, Tulsa faced SMU. The Mustangs came out fast, opening the scoring with two goals in the first five minutes, and never let up. They scored another one before Rachel Thun was able to get Tulsa on the board. The scoring calmed down after that, and the teams headed into the break at 3-1.
The Golden Hurricane were not able to mount a comeback in the second half, and SMU added one more goal for extra security, claiming the 4-1 win.
After the loss, Tulsa is 8-8-1 (4-3 American Athletic Conference) for the year. Their next game is a home game against UCF. Start time is 7:00 p.m.
