Soccer: Overtime goal helps Texas advance

After 107 minutes of play, the Longhorns found their last inkling of energy to clinch a spot in round two of the Big 12 tournament.

Although the win was a complete team effort, it was freshman Hannah Higgins who was at the bottom of the burnt orange celebratory dog pile at the end of the game. Higgins, who is one of the team leaders in scoring with four goals, scored the game-winner with 3:14 left in the second overtime against Colorado on Wednesday afternoon at Blossom Soccer Stadium in San Antonio.

“It was an all-around relief,” Higgins said of her goal. “Right before we went out for that second overtime, we talked about how we deserved this and no one wanted to go into [penalty kicks]. The whole team stepped up and found that motivation to keep going. We wanted this more than anything and didn’t want to end our season tonight.”

The game played to the same tune of the teams’ last contest, which was just over a week ago with the majority of the game taking place in the middle of the field. Texas won that game 1-0 in double overtime.

“We attacked with a lot more purpose and aggression today,” said head coach Chris Petrucelli. “We ran at players and took them on while going forward. We haven’t done that as much as we should have this year, but we worked on that a lot this past week.”

The Longhorns defense, led by co-captains Emily Anderson and Erica Campanelli, kept Colorado’s Nikki Marshall, who is one of the top players in the nation, at bay the entire game.

“Nikki is one of the best players in the country and has been that way for four years,” Petrucelli said. “Anytime you keep Nikki off the board, you’ve excelled, and we were able to do it.”

Campanelli explained that although Marshall has a lot of speed and skill, the Texas defense is able to stay with any type of player.

“[Marshall] has a lot of pace and is dangerous up top,” Campanelli said. “But we know we can stay with good players and so we just stayed confident and we got the job done. We played as hard as we could, lights out for [107] minutes.”

In addition to blocking just about every scoring opportunity the Buffaloes had, Campanelli almost had the game-winner. Before Higgins scored, Campanelli headed a corner kick that hit the cross bar.

“I was thinking, please go in, and when it didn’t, I was just hoping my team could pull out a win,” she said. “We had so many opportunities and shots even from inside the 18 [yard box] that I knew we were going to get it done. It was just a matter of when.”

With the win, Texas advances to the Big 12 semi-finals for the first time since winning it all in 2007 and for the eighth time in program history. The Longhorns will move on to play the winner of Texas A&M/Baylor match on Friday, Nov. 6 at 8 p.m. in San Antonio.

“Now is when you refocus,” Campanelli said. “You can enjoy [the win] for a little while, but not too long. We’ve got to be ready for Friday.”

Comments

1 comments

Bill in Sinton

Thu Nov 5 2009 10:00

Way to Go Horns! Way to Fight and Win! Keep fighting!
Hook 'em!

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