Baylor Soccer Surrenders Last Minute Goal, Draws Texas State 2-2

WACO, Texas — Baylor Soccer (5-3-1) overcame a 1-0 second-half deficit before conceding with 13 seconds left to play to draw the Texas State Bobcats (3-3-2) at a score of 2-2.

Junior forward Tyler Isgrig and graduate transfer midfielder Kai Hayes scored for the Bears in the 56th and 71st minutes respectively to overcome a 54th-minute goal by the Bobcats’ Victoria Meza. The late equalizer was given up off of a free kick just outside the Baylor box in the 90th minute. After the initial ball in was rebuffed, Texas State’s Helen Alormenu looped the ball from right to left over Baylor’s goalkeeper Ashlee Zirkle to earn the draw.

After what Baylor head coach Michelle Lenard considered a very disappointing Thursday performance against No. 15 Oklahoma State, the Green and Gold were not able to overcome a 2.5-hour lightning delay and start as fast as they hoped to.

“We played pretty poorly in the first half, as far as creating opportunities go,” said Coach Lenard, “But I thought we had a great start to the second half. And we had opportunities to put that team away early... and we didn't.”

On a rainy night, the players and the ball were slipping around a good bit, making controlled possession just a bit tougher than normal. With the Bobcats playing more on the counter than Baylor, and with speed at the right times in the right places, the visitors earned the better chances of a back-and-forth first half.

After a presumably frank halftime talk, the Bears came out peppering the Texas State goal, sending in six shots in the first six minutes of the period. This included two shots on goal and two very good chances for the Bears that were put over the Bobcats’ crossbar.

The first of those very good chances came via an Isgrig shot that the Texas State keeper spilled. Knowing the keepers would struggle to hold onto the wet ball, graduate midfielder Ashley Merrill guessed correctly where the ball might go and was in the perfect place to make the visitors pay. Her close-range shot sailed out of play in the 51st minute.

Moments later, Theresa McCullough tried to volley home a great cross in nearly the same location, getting the same result. This was a tougher chance to convert, however.

“We came out in the second half the way that we said we were going to come out in the first half,” said Coach Lenard of this good period of pressure, “That's what you should have seen from us the beginning. And I don't know why it took so long to get there.”

Disappointingly for the Bears, after failing to convert on their chances, Texas State made the Green and Gold pay at the other end. 

The Bobcats' Victoria Meza beat Zirkle with a shot across goal and placed well into the top left corner. 1-0 Texas State in the 54th minute.

Baylor responded immediately with more shots at the Texas State goal. The law of averages did not let the Bears down and Isgrig found and equalizer in the 56th minute. The forward’s shot from a central position outside the box took a heavy deflection off of a defender and looped past the keeper. 1-1.

Fifteen minutes later, with Texas State starting to look dangerous again, the Bears earned a free kick a good distance away from the goal inside the Bobcats’ half. After the ball was recycled out to the Bears’ backline, Natalie Vatter sent a quick ball back over the top of the defense to try to catch the visitors off guard. Kai Hayes was the only player to take a chance on Vatter’s ball and she made it count. The graduate transfer from North Carolina got her head to the ball before the keeper and sent it into the back of the net, 2-1 Bears with 19 minutes to play.

With the chippiness of the game mounting and the referee starting to lose control, Ashley Merrill was booked for dissent after passionately disagreeing with one call. The graduate midfielder, who has now picked up four yellow cards through the last seven games, was getting roughed up all night and played the second half on a tweaked ankle she picked up late in the first 45.

Merrill's protest was not without merit, however, the referee made plenty of calls that could have gone either way after letting the game get to a point where the physicality necessitated some kind of foul call.

This is most pivotally the case when the Bears were whistled for a foul with 13 seconds left to play just outside of their 18-yard box.

The resulting free kick was rebuffed but found its way to Texas State Helen Alormenu on the right side of the box where she lofted a shot over Baylor keeper Ashlee Zirkle and into the left side of the goal. 2-2. 

“I thought it was a bad call from the referee,” said Coach Lenard after the game, “I thought there was contact going both directions, both girls pulling on each other. I don't think you make that call right there, but after that happened, we have to deal with it. We had to defend better, and we didn't.”

The Bears are now on a three-game winless streak after their fun, five-game heater came to an end last week in Iowa.

The Green and Gold have underperformed their expected goals (xG) metric in the last two games per coach Lenard. She said the xG of the Oklahoma State match was 1.8-0.74 in favor of Baylor and she expects a similar differential from the Texas State match.

When asked about how the team handles frustrating situations like questionable refs, chippy games, and disappointing results, Coach Lenard had this to say:

“I think the frustrations are important. If we want to be a championship team, then we have to deal with this stuff, and it is frustrating and it's painful. We’ve got to figure out how to not be in this situation in the future. So I think we own those feelings, and we understand that we bring a lot of that on ourselves by not taking advantage of the opportunities that we get and hopefully we can keep using this to fuel us.”

The Bears are now done with non-conference play, finishing that eight-game slate 5-2-1. All that is left is Big 12 play where the Bears have ten games to earn a spot in the conference tournament and prove that they deserve a place in the NCAAs. 

The next step on that journey is a Thursday clash with Arizona at 7 PM in Waco.