Box Score OKLAHOMA CITY – Looking to get back over .500 in conference play, the Wayland Baptist women's soccer team traveled to Oklahoma City to take on Mid-America Christian. WBU's
Tori Nimtz provided the heroics Saturday, scoring one minute and 15 seconds into the extra period to give Wayland a 2-1 win over the Evangels.
The Pioneers won the coin toss to start OT, allowing them to get the wind at their backs and the sun in the eyes of the MACU defenders, giving Wayland (2-7-1, 2-1-0 SAC) a huge advantage in overtime. The Pioneers also got the first possession, and
Jessica Bell, who scored earlier in the match, set up Nimtz's game-winner.
Bell played the ball diagonally from the left side of the field to the right side, where
Jodian Morris and Mid-America's keeper entered a foot race for the ball. The speedy Morris won the race, giving WBU an open net.
Morris flipped the ball to the center of the box where
Heather Terbush deflected the ball to Nimtz. A junior from New Braunfels, Nimtz finished the job, heading in the game-winner over the leg of a defender who had come rushing in.
"I'm proud of them all," head coach
Shiloh Posey said. "Even when we were scrambling around they never quit working hard."
Mid-America Christian (8-2, 1-1), which entered Saturday's match with just one loss, controlled possession of the ball for the majority of the match, but the Evangels quickly fell behind after Bell scored her first goal of the season a minute into the match.
Bell ran through a group of defenders and picked up the ball in the middle of the box, shooting right past the keeper to give Wayland a 1-0 advantage.
Wayland went into halftime with a 1-0 lead, but MACU, looking to stay perfect in conference play, was able to even the score in the second half.
In the 31
st minute, MACU's Chelsea Swisher scored her team-high 12th goal of the season. Karla Cabello assisted Swisher on the play.
The Evangels outshot the Pioneers 7-3 in the second half, but WBU was able to hold off MACU and force overtime on the road.
"We had possession for the majority of the first half, but at halftime MACU changed their formation and gave us some problems," Posey said. "They really started to dominate possession and scored on us, but we were able to stay in it and hang on to get to overtime."
Going into Saturday's match, Wayland was in a four-way tie for fourth in the SAC, but with the win the Pioneers got out of the group to inch closer to the top.
"This was a huge win for us," Posey said. "We were right in the middle of a big group, but the win helped give us some separation from the other schools in the middle of the standings and kept us from dropping to the bottom at the same time.
"Mid-America really outplayed us a lot, but we were fortunate today. It always seems like our matches with them are extremely competitive and you never know who the bounce will go to."
For its next match, Wayland hosts Southwestern Assemblies of God (2-7-1, 0-1-0) at 4 p.m. Oct. 10 at J.V. Hilliard Field.
