SAN ANTONIO – At the tail end of a game-long blow-for-blow battle on Thursday night at the Park West Athletics Complex, Santa Clara (4-2-3) pieced together a game-winning goal in the final five minutes, dealing UTSA soccer (4-1-3) its first loss of the season in the non-conference finale, 1-0.
The Roadrunners held the offensive upper hand in the opening half, maintaining a 54-46 percent possession advantage, heading into the half with three of their eight shots on target and an 8-5 shot lead despite the stalemate at the break.
Coming out of the locker room, the Broncos quickly upped their shot count and evened the margins by the 72nd minute. Despite three steady second-half saves from senior goalkeeper Jasmine Kessler, Santa Clara snapped the deadlock as leading scorer Kennedy Schoennauer pulled a Jacey Martinez pass across her body to fire a goal into the upper left corner and take a 1-0 lead in the 86th minute.
In the evenly-matched back-and-forth struggle, the Broncos edged up a 13-12 shot advantage, with both teams logging five on-target shots.
Redshirt sophomore Bri Carrigan and redshirt junior Sabrina Taber each registered two shots apiece to lead the Roadrunners.
Goals
SCU: Kennedy Schoennauer (86’)
UTSA: None
Quoting Coach Derek Pittman
“I’m disappointed in the outcome, but I’m not disappointed in any way, shape or form in the performance of our players. We played fantastic soccer, I thought we a really good job for long periods of time controlling the game, in and out of possession. In the end, we made an error we couldn’t afford, leaving their best goal-scorer free inside the box, and we got punished for it. Very proud of the attitude, effort and mentality the players put into preparing for this game, and ultimately performing in it. It’s exactly the kind of game we need in preparing for conference play. More positives than negatives and I’m excited to keep getting better this week to go on the road next week for American play.”
UP NEXT: The Roadrunners kick off conference play with a weeklong road swing in North Carolina, traveling to East Carolina in the American opener on Thursday, Sept. 24 in Greenville, followed by a Sunday, Sept. 27 matchup at Charlotte.
- UTSA -