Box Score
Cristhian Ospina was confident when junior
Lochlan Reus lined up for a free kick with the game on the line.
"He stays after practice and works on his free kicks all the time," Ospina said. "We had a good feeling."
Reus proved his coach's confidence was just, scoring on a beautiful free kick from 20 yards out with 1:01 left to lift 21
st-ranked Wayland Baptist to a hard-fought 3-2 Sooner Athletic Conference victory over Oklahoma City University on Tuesday night at Hilliard Field.
"He scored when we needed it, and I'm happy for him," Ospina said of Reus. "He took the shot from the place he practices a lot."
The win keeps Wayland (10-1-1, 4-0-1 SAC) unbeaten in conference play just a half-game behind unbeaten Southwestern Christian (11-2, 5-0) and extends the Pioneers' program-record unbeaten streak to 10 consecutive matches. OCU (9-3, 2-2) drops into a tie for fourth place.
Coming off a 1-1, double-overtime tie on Saturday at Bacone that ended their eight-game winning streak, the Pioneers didn't take long to take their frustrations out on the Stars as
Federico Ucar scored his second goal of the season on a header after a long cross from
Cooper Gaypia.
But the Stars put in the next two goals in the 28
th minute and the 35
th minute on a free kick from just outside the 18-yard box to take a 2-1 lead into halftime.
"We let the other team gain confidence," Ospina said. "Then they scored again and instead of just once goal we had to score two goals."
Thankfully, they did, but just barely.
Wayland tied it on
Raheem Fleming's fourth goal of the season that came off a rebound at the 53:33 mark.
It appeared the teams were headed to overtime, but the Pioneers played fast on a goalie kick by
Ziggy Camejo.
Luis Almeida was pressing when he was fouled just outside the 18-yard box.
With 61 ticks left, Reus lined up just left of the post on the north end of Hilliard Field and hooked the ball over a wall of six Stars and past the OCU keeper into the upper left corner of the goal.
Reus' third score of the season ignited a dog-pile celebration by the Pioneers, who had to fight off a final charge by the Stars who, after a yellow card on Wayland, got a free kick with seven seconds left. From 15 yards outside the box, OCU looped the ball within a few yards of the Wayland goal, but the Pioneers managed to keep the ball out and preserve the victory.
It was Wayland's second straight win over OCU, having beaten the Stars on the road last season, 4-0. The Pioneers improved to 3-5-1 in the all-time series.
The Pioneers took 21 shots and had as many shots on-goal, nine, as the Stars had shots.
Ricardo Ramos, who scored four goals in Wayland's previous five matches, had four shots on-goal in five attempts.
Camejo earned the win with one save.
Ospina said several players answered the bell when their number was called.
"
Jonathan Luna stepped up and
Luis Morin came in and gave us some good minutes," the coach said. "That was a good thing because we realized there are a lot of guys who can step up to the challenge."
Still, Ospina said the Pioneers shouldn't have had to work as hard as they did to get the win.
"I don't believe they were as good as us, although they did play hard and with a lot of energy," the coach said. "We made it harder on ourselves by letting them score twice, and it takes a lot of energy to come back like that. I like that we won, but we have to be smarter and manage the game a little better and find a way to make it easier on ourselves and conserve energy for the next game."
Wayland now heads back on the road to Chickasha, Okla., to face Science and Arts of Oklahoma at 6 p.m. Saturday. The Drovers (8-4-1, 2-2), who had been receiving Top 25 votes until last week, lost at home to OCU on Friday 2-0 but got back on the winning track with a 3-0 victory at Southwestern Assemblies of God on Tuesday.
"We just have to stay humble and continue to concentrate," Ospina said.
