Oct. 14, 2016 Final Stats
By John Shellenberger
Baylor Bear Foundation In front of a rowdy, vuvuzela-blowing crowd Friday night, the Baylor women's soccer team (11-4-1, 4-1-1 Big 12) showed TCU (8-3-2, 0-3-1) why you don't play a team on its Homecoming weekend.
Defeating the Horned Frogs 2-1, the Bears displayed the fierce aggressiveness their team is known for. The game wasn't nearly as close as the final score would indicate, as the Bears dominated all night and out-shot TCU, 15-6.
In a scoreless first half, junior midfielder Precious Akanyirige showed her prowess in all defensive areas - tackling, marking, stealing and controlling the ball whenever it was close to her. Baylor's defense looked quick and in control, clearing the ball on the two occasions TCU was able to get looks in front of the net.
With only seconds left in the first half, freshman Raegan Padgett dribbled past two defenders and took a powerful, curving shot, narrowly saved by TCU's Katie Lund.
"I was just trying to work as hard as I could every minute that I got in the game," Padget said. "I heard 10 seconds left and I was just going for it, so it definitely gave us confidence going into the second half." That confidence showed early in the second period.
Senior Ashley York took a powerful free kick toward the bottom right corner of the goal, but Lund came up with another save. Moments later, though, the Bears reaped their reward when Padgett drilled a shot from the edge of the box that slipped through the goalkeeper's mitts and into the back of the net for the game's first goal in the 61st minute.
"(Padgett) has never had to be relied on as much as we're relying on her," Baylor coach Paul Jobson said. "To come on with the speed that she has, she opens up the game for us. And to be able to put that ball away is big-time. It gave us a lot of momentum. We had a lot of great opportunities throughout the game, but that first goal is always clutch."
Ten minutes later, Akanyirige found another way to get her name on the board, tapping in a goal off of a Caitlin Schwartz corner kick to give the Bears a 2-0 lead. It was her second goal of the season and seventh of her career.
That two-goal lead held up until TCU's Faith Carter notched her sixth goal of the season off a pass from Michelle Prokof with just 31 seconds remaining in regulation play.
"I don't think it was as close of a game as the 2-1 score," Jobson said. "The other 89 ½ minutes that we played were fantastic, and a lot of credit to my girls for grinding that out."
Riding a three-game winning streak, the Bears face Iowa State (8-5-1, 2-3-1) at 7 p.m. next Friday, Oct. 21, at Betty Lou Mays Field. They close out the regular season by hosting Kansas (8-4-3, 3-1-1) two days later in a game that will likely have Big 12 Tournament seeding implications.
While the team seems to be peaking at the right time, Jobson knows the Bears have to continue improving to reach their goals.
"Our goal all year has been to get better every day," he said. "The positive is I think we're doing that. We've been doing that constantly and consistently, and that's just credit to the veterans on this team and how they're leading us to do that. We definitely got better tonight."
THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas -- Baylor soccer earned a 2-1 win over TCU on Friday evening at Betty Lou Mays Field. The Bears (11-4-1, 4-1-1) scored twice in the second half to take down the Horned Frogs (8-3-2, 0-3-1).
After a hard-fought, evenly matched first half, the Bears took control in the second. In the 61st minute, Raegan Padgett made a run down the right sideline and fired a 17-foot shot from the right edge of the box that went through the goalkeeper's hands for a 1-0 lead.
Then in the 71st minute, a volley by Caitlin Schwartz turned into a back-footed redirected goal by Precious Akanyirige in the box. TCU managed to get a goal in the 90th minute but did not have enough time to put together another attack.
NOTES
*Baylor reached the 11-win plateau for the fifth time in the last seven years and ninth time in 21 seasons as a program -- first time since going 11-6-3 in 2013.
*Baylor reached the four-win plateau in Big 12 play for the second straight season, fifth time in the last seven seasons and 11th time in 21 seasons as a program.
*Baylor has won three matches in a row for the second time this season (four, Aug. 26-Sept. 4).
*Baylor has won three straight Big 12 matches for the first time since Oct. 25-Nov. 6, 2013.
*Baylor is 127-48-23 all-time at home, 57-16-12 under the Jobsons and 5-0-1 in 2016. In their last 11 matches at home the Bears are undefeated with an 9-0-2 mark (last loss was 2-1 vs. Michigan State on Aug. 25, 2015).
*Baylor is undefeated in 24 of its last 30 matches, dating back to the 2015 season.
*Baylor is 39-2-3 when scoring first since 2013.
*Baylor leads the all-time series over TCU, 10-0-3, but the teams had tied in the last three series meetings before tonight.
*Baylor led TCU in shots (15-6) and shots on goal (5-3) while TCU led in corner kicks (7-4).
*Freshman forward Raegan Padgett scored her third goal of the season for her ninth point.
*Junior midfielder Precious Akanyirige scored her second goal of the season and seventh of her career for her fourth point of the season and 15th of her career. The goal marked her first game-winner of the season and fourth of her career.
*Junior transfer defender Caitlin Schwartz picked up her first assist of the season for her third point.
*Junior Sara Martinson earned her 10th win of the season and 19th of her career to move into ninth on Baylor's all-time single-season wins list.
STAT OF THE GAME
8 -- The differential in shots in Baylor's advantage in the second half (11-3).
QUOTE OF THE GAME
"Our goal all year is to get better every day and I think we have been doing that constantly and consistently. That's just a credit to the veterans on this team. We definitely got better tonight and the great thing about this sport is that we have to turn around tomorrow for a recovery day and continue to get better." -- Head Coach Paul Jobson
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor hosts Iowa State next Friday at 7 p.m. CT at Betty Lou Mays Field.
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