WICHITA FALLS, Texas (Nov. 4) – Resurgent Central Oklahoma scored two goals in a six-minute span of the second half to break away from a tie and went on to clip Incarnate Word 3-1 in the first round of the Lone Star Conference Women’s Soccer Championships here Thursday afternoon.
It was a season-high fourth straight win for the Bronchos, who avenged a 1-0 regular season overtime loss to the Cardinals in moving into Friday’s semifinals. UCO, now 11-7-1 on the year, will take on tournament host and No. 19-ranked Midwestern State at 7:30 p.m.
Angelo State blanked Texas A&M-Commerce 2-0 in Thursday’s other first-round contest and will meet Abilene Christian at 5 p.m. Friday in the other semifinal. The two semifinal winners play for the league title and an automatic berth in the NCAA Division II national tournament at 1 p.m. Sunday.
“We’ve been playing pretty well the last couple of weeks and it showed today,” UCO coach Mike Cook said. “We were really aggressive and took the attack to them on offense and it finally paid off in the second half. It will be a tough game tomorrow, but we’re looking forward to taking on Midwestern and seeing what we can do.”
The Bronchos broke a 1-1 deadlock in the 71st minute when Ashton Morris slipped past the defense and knocked in her fifth goal of the season after receiving a nifty pass from Stephanie Fleig.
UCO was on the attack again minutes later and Brittni Walker made it 3-1 at the 76:50 mark with her team-high ninth goal, easily scoring into the right side of the net on an assist by Lizzie Merritt.
Defense did the rest, with UIW not getting close to a goal in the final 13 minutes as the Bronchos closed out the win.
UCO took a 1-0 lead 23:40 into the contest when Summer Grantham scored an unassisted goal, but the Cardinals tied that in the 37th minute and it stayed that way until Morris’ game-winner.
The Bronchos outshot UIW 21-15 and got six saves from goalkeeper Samantha Rusk.
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