No. 20 Texas Tech Edges Out Georgia in Home Opener
Over 1,500 crazed soccer fans came out to the John Walker Soccer Complex Friday Night to see Georgia (0-2-1) fall by a score of 2-1 to our beloved Red Raiders (2-1-0).
“I really think the crowd gets a big assist today,” said head coach Tom Stone. “They came in numbers and once the game got going they really pushed us. I told the girls at halftime that at that time there were only fifty people enjoying this game. Those are the fifty Georgia people in the stands. I told them we had to get the Tech fans into this and that if we do that they will push us and that is what happened. We relied on our fans for five or six years now and they get a big assist tonight.”
Texas Tech started slow giving up five shots on goal in the first half and allowing Georgia's lone goal. “We weren’t intense enough as a team in the first half,” said Stone. “We tried to use halftime to light a fire that quite frankly we just haven’t seen yet. We were good against USC, we were good against New Mexico, but good isn’t going to get it done. We just appealed to everyone to try to be more aggressive in the second half on defense.”
The message was heard loud and clear by the Red Raiders and senior Janine Beckie who fired four shots in the second half with four on goal for the game.
Tech answered back to tie the game in the 53rd minute when an Ali Murphy corner kick found Cassie Conarty’s head to even the score at one all.
“We just decided it was time to go,” said Murphy. “We had been more aggressive in the previous games, but in the second half of this game we just decided it was time to go now. We were down a goal and we knew everyone had to be going their hardest for as long as we could.”
Again in the 73rd minute the Red Raiders would score what would prove to be the game winning goal as Maddy Crabtree was able to coral a Beckie shot attempt and fire one past Georgia’s Louise Hogrell.
“These moments are crucial,” added Stone. “Literally playing minute by minute where the other team is better than you for a little while and you are better than them for a little while. When you experience that you just really can’t put a price tag on that. This was a lot like how the USC game looked. They had the game and then we had the game, but then they just pulled away from us. Tonight we pulled away. These are key moments to grow your players and to grow your team.”
The Red Raiders will be back in action next weekend as they host UTSA on Friday night, followed by a match against Minnesota on Sunday.
[Source: texastech.com]