SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA soccer team (8-7-3, 3-5-2 AAC) rallied to a bittersweet victory on Halloween night at the Park West Athletics Complex, as the Roadrunners scored logged two second-half goals from seniors Jordyn Hyland and Sasjah Dade to overtake the visiting Florida Atlantic Owls (3-10-4, 2-5-2 AAC). Despite delivering the needed win over the Owls, other surprising league results cut UTSA’s anticipated tournament opportunities short.
With seven seniors taking the field for UTSA at kickoff, it was gridlock in the first half, with the Roadrunners leading a 6-3 shooting margin on the Owls – including four on-target attempts that earned deflections from FAU defenders. Despite the 56-44 possession advantage in favor of the Roadrunners, the game remained scoreless at the half.
Like many contests this season, the pace and aggressive approach quickened for the Roadrunners right after half. However, it was the Owls that first notched a score on the board, as Sutton Markee chipped in the first goal of the night in the 53rd minute.
Seeing the climb ahead of them, the Roadrunners responded with urgency. On a Rylee Low throw-in, Zoё May headed the inbound across the box to Hyland, who fired an absolute rocket through a bevy of FAU defenders and past keeper Lexi Gonzalez into the upper right net in the 67th minute for the equalizer on her first goal this season.
In a knotted game with the clock winding, the Roadrunners used yet another set piece to take the lead as Dade put a header past Gonzalez off Sophie Morrin’s corner service to go up 2-1 – via her seventh and final career game-winner in the 83rd minute.
UTSA finished with a 14-6 shot advantage, earning 10 on-target chances.
The Roadrunners held up their end of the work with conference tournament implications swirling around the result. However, a Tulsa draw at No. 17 Memphis shifted the standings and forced UTSA to be excluded from the field despite the victory – bringing the Roadrunners’ 2024 campaign to a close.
Goals
FAU: Sutton Markee (53’)
UTSA: Jordyn Hyland (67’), Sasjah Dade (83’)
Quoting Coach Derek Pittman
“Absolutely gutted for our kids. They executed our gameplan exceptionally well through the ebbs and flows of this game. I’m really proud of how they responded going down; we made some adjustments and they executed them flawlessly. They did exactly what we asked of them and showed a tremendous amount of grit and toughness and character tonight in how they competed. That’s all I can ever ask of our players. I’m very proud of them coming back and getting a result tonight, just gutted that we can’t continue this into Tampa next week to compete in the conference tournament. I feel like this team is good enough and should be in the tournament, but unfortunately, other results didn’t go our way. Full credit to Tulsa for getting the job done on the road against a very good Memphis team.”
- UTSA -