A Sunday night thriller at Elmer Grey Stadium ended in a double-overtime draw between #22 Baylor and the ACU Wildcats.
With over 730 fans in the stadium, ACU took on Baylor University. The first goal of the night, and third of the season, came from senior Shay Johnson in the 25th minute with an assist from junior Christina Arteaga.
The Lady Bears responded in the 56th minute when BU’s sophomore Taylor Moon took a one-on-one to tie up the game.
In Div. 1 history, soccer has been 0-12 against “power-five” schools (Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and ACC) until Sunday when the team tied Big 12’s Baylor, 1-1.
The Wildcats outshot Baylor, 9-4 in the first half, but the Lady Bears held the overall advantage, 19-15, for the entire game. However, the Wildcats led 10-3 in corner kicks.
Johnson and Arteaga each recorded three shot attempts, while senior Samantha Vestal, redshirt sophomore Emily Heidman and freshman Natalie Jones each had two shots of their own.
Redshirt senior Rachel Johnson had a strong game in the net, recording five saves in the 110 minute game. It was Johnson’s first start of the season.
“We had a great atmosphere in both of the games we played Baylor before, but with it being Senior night tonight, we all went into it with the same mindset we went into the Southland Conference tournament,” Johnson said. “We went into saying it was a big game, we got a lot of people, a lot of fans and we are going to win this.”
The ACU and BU match was a physical game. The game included a total of 23 fouls, and two red cards were given out during a scuffle between ACU’s redshirt junior defender Megan Paul and the lady Bears’ senior forward Raegan Padgett.
This was ACU’s last non-conference game of the season and third time competing against Baylor over the past two season: the first the opening of the Wildcat’s 2019 season, where ACU fell 0-2 to the Lady Bears, and the most recent, the NCAA Tournament, when Baylor knocked them out in the first round of the tournament.
Not only was it a historic night,but it was also an emotional night as ACU honored six seniors for Senior night and unveiled the 2018 Southland Conference Championship banner.
Shay Johnson shared that Sunday’s match against Baylor was different compared to the other two meetings with the Lady Bears.
“I don’t think Baylor went into it with the same mindset we had, so I believe that was the difference between the two teams, but we were very ready,” Johnson said. “I think we are ready for this weekend. We have a lot of momentum coming off of this past weekend, going into our first conference game. ”
ACU will open its Southland Conference play at 7 p.m. on Friday at Elmer Grey Stadium against Houston Baptist.
