SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA Roadrunners soccer team (2-0) made its first appearance at San Antonio FC’s Toyota Field a memorable one on Sunday night, keeping the crosstown crown intact with a 1-0 shutout of UIW (0-1-1), courtesy of Olivia Alvarez’s second-half penalty kick. The 1,459-strong crowd of San Antonio soccer supporters received a thrilling matchup with the shots flying around and the Roadrunners grinding out their second victory of the week.
After UIW star Sierra Wannamaker notched the night's first shot in the seventh minute, the floodgates opened, and it was an all-UTSA barrage for the remaining minutes of the half. At the break, the Roadrunners paced the shot exchange with a 15-1 advantage – including a pair of UIW close calls as goalkeeper Erica Defferding deflected a potential Alvarez score into the post and fought off a Jordan Hyland shot for a pair of her nine saves on the night.
However, in the second half, a true one-on-one with Defferding went to Alvarez, smashing a 51st-minute penalty kick into the upper right corner to break the stalemate and push the Roadrunners in front.
The Roadrunners kept pouring it on with unrelenting pressure, but the insurance score wasn’t in the cards, despite a 29-6 final shooting advantage with 13 on-target attempts – notching the most shots since 2022. Alvarez went on to tie her career high with six shots on the night, including three shots on goal.
In total, 11 different Roadrunners got a shot off, with Maci Geltmeier tracking right behind Alvarez at five, while Sophie Morrin, Hyland and Michelle Polo each tallied three apiece.
Sunday’s neutral site attendance was the fourth-largest UTSA-hosted crowd in program history and the largest crowd to attend a UTSA-hosted soccer contest since 2008.
Goals
UTSA: Olivia Alvarez (51’)
UIW: None
Quoting Coach Derek Pittman
"I thought it was a phenomenal experience for our players and it was an absolute blast to coach in. Extremely thankful and grateful for our UTSA administration and all of our creative services and communications staff for making this happen; and our marketing group for promoting this game for the last two weeks to put nearly 1,500 people in here. It was a lot of fun to be a part of. I know our players were over the moon to play in this stadium, but it made it even that much more special when they got to play in front of all these UTSA fans cheering them on. It makes it even sweeter when we have a chance to get a win under our belt. Overall, it was exactly what we hoped it would be – outside of more of a nailbiter than I would’ve liked.”
Up Next
Starting the season 2-0 in consecutive years for the first time in program history, UTSA hits the road next week for the first time this season, heading up the Interstate to meet Texas State in the Battle of I-35 on Thursday night. The Roadrunners delivered a 1-0 victory last season at Park West – Sophie Morrin registering the 21st-minute game-winner. UTSA’s last trip to San Marcos was a 1-0 loss in 2018 during Pittman’s first season in San Antonio. The Bobcats don’t have another game this week after dropping a 2-1 loss at Rice on Thursday.
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