September 14, 2012
COWGIRLS UP
Late girl gives OSU 32 win over NTx

STILLWATER, Okla. – Allie Stephenson’s goal in the 88th minute gave No. 7 Oklahoma State a 3-2 win over North Texas Friday night at the Cowgirl Soccer Complex.

After seeing their 2-0 halftime lead erased just over five minutes into the second half, the Cowgirls were able to emerge victorious on the first game-winning goal of Stephenson’s career.


Off a corner kick, the freshman gathered the loose ball and sent a low shot past UNT goalie Jackie Kerestine for the second goal of her career, helping OSU improve to 8-1-0 on the season.


“I was just thinking I had to put it in the back of the net so we didn’t have to go to overtime – I just wanted to finish the game,” said Stephenson, who also had an assist in the match.

With the win, the Cowgirls improved to 6-0 on its home field heading into Sunday’s match against Fresno State.


“One thing this team has is we fight back, and you can see it in the last couple of games that we’ve played,” said OSU All-American goalie AD Franch. “This time we were ahead and let them come back, but we still had enough heart and desire to win.”

OSU head coach Colin Carmichael was also pleased with how his team responded after allowing the Mean Green to score two goals early in the second half to tie the score.


“We’re cruising at halftime and thought we had the game under control, and there was about a 10, 15 minute period in the second half where two things happened – (UNT) picked up their intensity level and played hard, and we switched off and didn’t play at the level that we needed to,” Carmichael said. “I’m proud because it would have been easy to fold giving up those two goals, but we fought back again and found a way to win.”


OSU jumped out to the 2-0 lead in the first 30 minutes of the match. The Cowgirls didn’t waste any time notching their first goal as Kendra Boydstun collected the rebound of a Madison Mercado shot that was saved by Kerestine and sent it into the back of the net in the third minute.

Mercado was on the end of OSU’s next goal as she took a perfect pass from Stephenson and scored her fourth goal of the season in the 30th minute.

The tables turned following intermission, however.

UNT (5-2-1) got its first score in the 48th minute as Kelsey Hodges took a free kick from 28-yards out and blasted a shot to the upper post to cut the Mean Green deficit to 2-1.

Just over three minutes later, the visitors notched the equalizer when Amber Haggerty dribbled through the defense and sent a shot past Franch.


In the 61st minute, OSU had two scoring opportunities in close, but Carson Michalowski’s shot was saved off the line by a UNT defender before Kristen Kelley’s follow glanced off the post.


The Mean Green narrowly missed taking their first lead of the contest in the 87th minute when Michelle Young delivered a shot that Franch dove to her right to corral.

That save came just 82 seconds before Stephenson’s heroics, which came off a mad scramble for the ball off a corner kick by Kelsey Bass.

“We were just trying to put the ball on top of (Kerestine) and put her under pressure, and the ball broke to Allie and she was really composed and did a great job to keep her shot down and score,” Carmichael said.

The Cowgirls will look to keep their perfect home record intact Sunday when they host Fresno State at noon.