Despite their offensive miscommunication and lackluster play Sunday, Utah overcame an early second-half deficit with Oklahoma to salvage a 1-1 draw.
“Our touch and our ideas weren’t sharp today,” said head coach Rich Manning. “We paid the price for it a little bit.”
The Utes and Sooners battled to a 0-0 tie through one half, but soon after the second began, Utah found themselves one goal down.
In the 49th minute, goalkeeper Lindsey Luke attempted to pick up a loose ball. As she went down to grab the ball, it was stolen by Oklahoma forward Daisy Cardona. Cardona was left staring at an empty net and she shot it in easily to give the Sooners a 1-0 advantage. It was the first goal allowed by Luke this season.
“I was going to pick [the ball] up and the girl kicked it out of my hands,” Luke said. “Which I assume is illegal, but that ref didn’t call it, so what can you do.”
The Utes almost let another empty net goal happen with 17 minutes remaining. Luke was far off the goal line when her pass was intercepted by Oklahoma. The Sooners shot it past Luke, but Utah defender Jenny Hutton was able to run back and kick it away from the goal before any damage was done.
“It wasn’t our best game, as far as passing, technique and those kind of things,” Manning said. “You have to credit Oklahoma for some of that, they defended very well, they had a good game plan and it was kind of the opposite of what Utah State was doing [on Friday] so I think it took us a while to figure it out.”
In the 79th minute the Ute offense finally put together a successful attack. A build-up that featured five players touching the ball ended with an Avery Ford equalizer. Taylor Slattery was credited with the official assist.
“We want to win. We worked hard, [they] worked hard, we were both tired from Friday,” Ford said. “It was great that we came back, but we just want to win. We had low energy, it’s something [we] need to fix.”
After the equalizer, the Utes kept attacking. Kaycee Buckley, Ashton Hall and Katie Rigby all had scoring chances turned away before the end of regulation.
In the overtime sessions, Baylee Nielsen and Buckley each had decent looks to put the golden goal in for the Utes but could not deliver. With less then 30 seconds remaining, Utah had one last run but Ashton Hall was called offside, ending both her chance and the game.
“I thought we played with good character,” Manning said. “Coming back is always a good sign that your team is fighting hard and believing in themselves, which is important.”
On Friday the Utes defeated Utah State 3-0 at Ute Field. Utah was aided with goals by Buckley, Slattery and Katie Taylor. Luke returned in goal for the Utes after missing four matches and picked up her fourth shutout of the season.