Box Score OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian women's soccer team won its fifth straight match in dramatic fashion Tuesday night when freshman midfielder Bayleigh Fink scored the golden goal with 37 seconds left in double overtime to propel the Evangels to a 3-2 victory at Oklahoma City.
Three different MACU players scored in the contest, as Kelsey Henry scored her fourth goal of 2019 while Ariadna Ramirez's second half equalizer was her third of the season. Fink's golden goal was the sixth score and the second game-winner in her rookie campaign.
The Stars had the first big scoring opportunity of the afternoon in the seventh minute, but OCU's Jessica Titsworth hit a shot off the post and her follow-up was saved by Jennifer Starwalt to keep the match scoreless.
The Stars had another golden opportunity in the 11th minute when Titsworth beat Starwalt on the right side, but a retreating Bayleigh Fink was able to make the save the on the shot, clearing it out the left side to keep the game deadlocked.
In the 15th minute, the Stars scratched across the first score after Rachel Brantley's shot from the right side bounced into the top right corner of the goal after receiving a pass from the right side by Madi Caputo to make it a 1-nil game with 30:30 left on the class.
After missing out on couple of close plays near the OCU goal, the Evangels were finally able to cash in during the 26th minute. Following a Stars foul on the left side from just outside the goal box, Marga Franco sent a free kick into the right side of the box as Henry put a header into the top right corner to lock the match up at 1-1.
The two teams were dead even at five shots apiece heading into the halftime break, but the Evangels defense clamped down during the final 25 minutes of the period by not allowing a single Stars shot.
MACU found itself down once again when Titsworth put a shot in off the rebound past Starwalt after she saved a long distance shot from Caputo in the 60th minute, making it a 2-1 OCU lead.
Mid-America Christian fought its way back with the game-tying goal in the 78th minute when Liz Lozano broke away down the middle and laid out a nice touch pass for Ramirez on the left side from just outside the goal box. Ramirez launched a long distance shot that tailed out toward the right side of the goal and slipped in just inside the post to set the score at 2-all.
The Evangels got one last chance to score the game-winner with 1:14 remaining, but Lozano's shot sailed just wide, sending the match into overtime.
In the first overtime period, Mid-America Christian got a great look at a potential goal when Kyleigh Gibson broke away down the right side and a cross to the left found a wide open Lozano on the left side, but her shot sailed just a few feet wide of the right post.
Ramirez got one last chance with 54 seconds in the overtime period, but her opportunity was saved, sending the match to a second overtime.
With just under five minutes to go in the second overtime, MACU had another great opportunity when a left side cross bounced off an OCU defender to an open Bayleigh Fink on the right side, but she also sent a wide open shot just wide right of the goal.
However, Fink was able to redeem herself with less than a minute remaining when she tracked down a deep cross from the left side, beat the keeper and fired a shot into the open net to seal the Mid-America Christian victory.
The Evangels outshot the Stars 14-10 in the contest, but MACU struggled to put shots on-target with only four landing on-goal while OCU placed six on-target shots.
Lozano was MACU's primary attacker in the match, taking half of MACU's shots. Starwalt improved to 9-3-1 starting in-goal as she made three saves while conceding two goals.
The win was a crucial one for the Evangels as MACU moved into one of the top four spots in the Sooner Athletic Conference standings. With 13 conference points, Mid-America Christian (9-3-1, 4-1-1 SAC) jumped ahead of Oklahoma City (8-7, 4-3 SAC) by one point. If the Evangels can end the conference season in the top four, they would host a first round match in the SAC Postseason Tournament.
Mid-America Christian will look to solidify those chances on Saturday as the Evangels will return home to take on Oklahoma Panhandle State for a 1 p.m. match at Evangel Field.
