Late goal lifts T-Birds to a 2-1 victory over Cochise Apaches
Rene Gomez
The Mesa women’s soccer team earned a 2-1 victory against the Cochise College Apaches Oct. 19 at John D. Riggs Stadium.
The win puts the T-Birds’ overall season record at 7-11 with a 7-9 conference record, and they are seventh place in the standings.
Cochise is ranked fourth in the conference and were 10-7 going into this match.
The last time these two teams met, Cochise won 2-1 in overtime and the T-Birds were looking to even the series.
The T-Birds’ defended the Apaches pretty well overall, but the first half was excellent because Cochise could only get three shot attempts and did not score.
The T-Birds did get on the board in the 23rd minute from a goal by freshman forward Monique Moore that was assisted by freshman forward Jordan Drake.
It was Moore’s second goal of the season.
“It felt really good and I felt like we needed it to change our confidence level because we were kind of down on ourselves because we lost the games before,” Moore said.
Mesa also kept Cochise contained by controlling possession for a majority of that first half.
The T-Birds started the second half differently, and Cochise took advantage of a relaxed T-Bird defense when they scored in the 56th minute to tie the score at one.
The T-Birds still are among the top teams in shot attempts per game with 13.1.
Some previous losses for the T-Birds were because of that energy level decreasing and this time Mesa responded.
“That goal was a wake-up call for us so we stepped our game up,” Moore said.
In the 67th minute Mesa regained the lead when freshman midfielder Morgan Eddy scored an unassisted goal and it was also her second goal of the season.
The T-Birds never looked back afterwards; Mesa has won two of their last three games, and they want to finish the regular season strong.
“I think the mentality is very positive based on the passion we have been playing with and the intensity,” said freshman midfielder Hannah Kijowski.
The ACCAC regional play begins Tuesday Oct. 29, but the outlook on postseason play is uncertain with two more regular season games before the playoffs.
