Lady Blazers give up two goals late, fall to Houston 2-1
Posted on Oct 16, 2012 in Sports
In front of 235 fans, The UAB women’s soccer team (2-13) dropped a 2-1 decision to Houston (5-6-3) Friday night at West Campus.
Two goals inside the 80 minute mark gave Houston the spark needed to beat the Blazers. Houston McDuffie/Staff Photographer
Friday night’s game was nearly a carbon copy of last years match. There were no particularly stellar moments and both teams were equally matched; however, Houston wore down the defense and simply outlasted the Lady Blazers as they captured their 5th win of the season.
“Houston showed a lot of heart tonight, and that made the difference in the game,” said Head Coach Harold Warren. “This is a game we should have won; now it becomes more difficult and we have to win out.”
This was a tough game for UAB’s women’s soccer team to loose both mentally and physically. From the sidelines you could almost see the intensity falling as the game wore on. “We have to play a full 90 minutes” said Freshman Paige Hanks. “We have to start playing the way we practice. In practice everything is fine but unfortunately we haven’t been able to show that on the field”.
After a scoreless first half, it was Hanks that scored the first goal of the night during the 61st minute of the game. Hanks was assisted by Johanna Liney who somehow managed to get past the Cougar defense and launch a shot that would have been perfect- except it was deflected by the keeper. At that moment, it was Hanks who came out of nowhere to rebound the ball, which she quickly deposited it into the back of the net giving the Blazers a 1-0.
The Blazers had things under control in their back and in the middle, but they couldn’t seem to really put anything together up top Friday night. The Blazers and the Cougars managed to go shot for shot most of the night with Houston edging past UAB 13-12.
Houston was able to rally their offense, and in the 80th and 88th minutes respectively, they dropped two goals, taking the lead and leaving the Blazers virtually no time to respond.
“We definitely should have had more opportunities tonight,” said senior co-captain Emma Jane Smith as she echoed what Hanks said earlier in the night. “It’s about playing 90 minutes not 80, we let down towards the end, that’s where we went wrong.”
The Lady Blazers have 4 conference games left this season, and in order to have a shot at tournament play, they will need to win all 4 games.
The first of these matchups is scheduled for Sunday when the UAB Women’s soccer team will face Rice at West Campus field at 1pm.
Chase Cole
Staff Writer
chascoleman@uab.edu