Box Score OKLAHOMA CITY (Nov. 3, 2014) –
Estefania Bermudez Delgado ended her collegiate soccer career in grand fashion on Monday afternoon, giving Oklahoma Christian a rousing send-off after a frustrating season.
The senior midfielder headed in
Alexis Farrell's free kick in the 108th minute, lifting the Lady Eagles to a 1-0 win over Texas-Permian Basin at the Eagle Soccer Field in the season finale for both teams.
OC (2-14-2, 1-6-1 Heartland Conference) held its own against UTPB (2-14-1, 0-8), a team that had beaten the Lady Eagles 2-0 earlier this season in a nonconference game.
"The girls worked hard all season long and they kept just plugging away and kept working hard," OC coach
Randall Robison said. "We felt like they had some unlucky bounces through the year, some situations where they probably should have won a game, but either we didn't do some little things or had some things go the opposite direction.
"It is good building into the offseason. Honestly, they don't get tomorrow off. It's right back to work, fitness testing and skills testing this week, so we know where we need to go. The thing is, they're excited about that. Because of a win like this, it's going to make going to work tomorrow a little bit easier for them. It definitely will be a good little spark going into next year."
In a closely contested game, UTPB posted a narrow 19-17 advantage in shots, but OC goalkeeper
Lindsey Williams proved up to the challenge, recording 10 saves – nine of those while the Falcons had a 15-20 mph wind at their back. It was the seventh time this season Williams reached double digits in saves in a game.
Williams, a junior from Plano, Texas, entered the game 10th in NCAA Division II in overall saves and finished the season with 151 stops, the second-highest single-season total in OC history. She recorded her second career shutout and her first since the first game of her freshman season, a 1-0 win over USAO in 2012.
"We've called on Lindsey more this year than we ever should have," Robison said. "Lindsey has been there to make the saves when we need those saves made. She's had a tough year. We've had a ton of pressure on her from start to finish and that's something we're going to have to fix going forward."
Who controlled the game mostly depended on who had the wind. During their time with the wind, the Falcons recorded 13 shots. OC fared a bit better, with eight shots with the wind and nine without.
UTPB's best chance to score came at the 55-minute mark, when Williams smothered a ball on the foot of Ariane Bersoza in the penalty box as Bersoza was on a breakaway.
OC nearly won the game in regulation, as UTPB goalkeeper Meredith Gebo couldn't control a shot by OC's
Courtney Nixon in the 87th minute, but managed to corral the ball just as senior
Carley Cave Keesee approached for what would have been an easy follow shot.
The Falcons had the wind in the first overtime, but couldn't get past Williams. OC pressured with the wind in the second overtime but also was having difficulty producing offensive chances.
Then senior defender
Katie Wertz drew a foul from UTPB's Ashley Redwine, who received a red card on the play and was ejected. That gave the Lady Eagles a free kick from about 30 yards out, less than three minutes before time would have expired.
Farrell curled the kick into the left side of the penalty box, and Bermudez Delgado got her head on it, putting it past Gebo and into the net, setting off a wild celebration by the Lady Eagles.
Gebo finished with four saves for the Falcons after coming on at halftime in relief of Ebony Campbell, who recorded two saves.
The game marked the final contest for OC's four seniors – Wertz, from Wichita, Kan.; Bermudez Delgado, from Madero, Mexico; Cave Keesee, from Edmond; and
Rachel Bates, from Kalamazoo, Mich.
"I thought the girls did really well, and specifically the seniors," Robison said. "I'm so very proud of them. I love every one of those girls and I'm glad to see them have the good game that they had today. … I was glad to see those girls go out the way that they did."
