Box Score
EDMOND (Oct. 24) – Whitney Craft knocked in a left-footed shot with just 33 seconds remaining to lift Central Oklahoma to a dramatic 2-1 Lone Star Conference triumph over Northeastern State Friday afternoon at Tom Thompson Field.
The Bronchos scored two second-half goals to overcome a 1-0 deficit and pull out the clutch win, with Craft drilling the game-winner from 25 feet out after taking a pass from Ashton Morris.
UCO improved to 10-4-3 on the year and 4-2-1 in the league with its ninth straight win over the RiverHawks. The Bronchos end their home schedule Sunday with a 1 p.m. contest against East Central.
“It wasn't pretty, but it's a win and we'll definitely take it,” UCO coach Mike Cook said. “Whitney hit a great shot at the end and I thought we did a lot of good things. We changed some things up offensively and got some pretty good looks, so hopefully this will give us a spark.”
NSU broke a scoreless deadlock with 9:01 left in the first half and the RiverHawks took that 1-0 lead into intermission, thanks to a great save by goalkeeper Patricia Nardy on a hard Jenny Racicot shot in the 40th minute.
The Bronchos dominated most of the second half, outshooting NSU 12-4 in the final 45 minutes and scoring twice to pull out the come-from-behind win.
Nardy kept the RiverHawks in front with saves on shots by Stephanie Lovely, Tiffanie Meek and Meghan Saliba in the opening minutes of the half before UCO finally drew even.
The Bronchos made it 1-1 in the 57th minute when Saliba took a corner kick from Lovely in front of the net and slipped a pass to Morris on the left side, with the sophomore kicking the ball backwards into the net for her 10th goal of the season.
Neither team had a serious scoring chance after that until Craft's late goal, just when it appeared the game was headed for overtime. UCO pushed the ball downfield in the final minute before Morris found Craft open in the middle and the sophomore's line-drive shot was just over the reach of Nardy.
Samantha Rusk went the distance in goal for the Bronchos, making five saves.
