No. 18 Texas Tech Bucks Santa Clara 2-1 On The Road

Texas Tech bucked the Santa Clara Broncos 2-1 on Thursday night, spurred on by two goals in the games opening four minutes of play. Goals from Peyton Parsons and Taylor Zdrojewski plus a gritty backline, including five saves from Faith Nguyen, were all the Red Raiders needed to move to 3-0 on the season and notch a solid resume road win.

“This is a veteran team with a bunch of feisty young players wanting to prove themselves,” said Texas Tech head coach Tom Stone following the game. “That’s a really good combination, and we just had a great start. There’s no team coached by Jerry Smith that’s not going to have something to say in the second half. So they took it to us pretty good, and that’s when we found out how tough our team is. We dug in, we played great defense, we cleared balls, our marking in the box was excellent, and grinded out the win.”

Texas Tech Stat Leaders

Taylor Zdrojewski – 7 shots, 2 SOG, 1 G, 73 min

Peyton Parsons – 2 shots, 2 SOG, 1 G , 1 A, 84 min

Alana Harry – 2 shots, 1 SOG, 1 A, 84 min

Faith Nguyen – 1 GA, 5 SV, 90 min

How It Happened

There are fast starts and then there is scoring in the games opening 20 seconds of the game which is exactly what Texas Tech did. Before Santa Clara could even get a breath in Macy Blackburn sent a ball up to Alana Harry who pushed one across the front of goal to the foot of Peyton Parsons and it was 1-0 with 17 seconds showing on the clock.

“We just weren’t ready for their fast start,” said Santa Clara head coach Jerry Smith. “I think that’s about the fastest goal we’ve probably ever taken in Santa Clara women’s soccer history. I think it was like 15 seconds. Credit to Texas Tech; they’re a good team, NCAA tournament team, and top 20 team, and well-coached, and a lot of good players…they’re No. 16 up front, she’s a I can see why she scores so many goals. She’s really hard to deal with. “

No. 16 being Zdrojewski, who was causing trouble for the Broncos early when she found her fourth goal of the season only minutes later at the 3:35 mark. The reigning Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week almost scored just seconds prior after her strike clanged off the crossbar but not to be denied she boxed out the Bronco defender and Kate Leibel set her up perfectly to turn and BURN one off her left foot into goal. It was 2-0, just like that.

“We were awesome on the ball and the ball was getting moved around quickly,” said Coach Stone. “We’ve got a lot of speed, so just took advantage of the momentum that we created from the opening whistle and before they knew it we were up 2-0 they had to chase the game. Which helped us get to halftime in one piece as well, probably should have been up 3, but it’s soccer.”

As you would expect from a rich in history program like Santa Clara, the Broncos did eventually settle in and put the heat on the Red Raiders backline a few times to end the half. Most dangerously in the 35th minute when Nguyen made a nifty kick save after Mailan Orzoco got free on the end line for a shot.

Freshman Raleigh Greason was a menace all game for Tech. Causing the Broncos fits througout with her speed she nearly got her second goal of the season near the end of the first half but the shot was deflecting wide of goal. It was the last shot attempt for either team of the half and the score held at 2-0 Texas Tech headed to the half.

As Coach Stone noted in the opening however, a team coached by Jerry Smith (in his 39th season with the team) is going to adjust and come out fighting in the second half. That’s exactly what they did scoring three minutes into the half after Nguyen made a great save on the initial shot attempt but a Adee Goulden snuck in to tap it in on the rebound.

From there both teams settled in a bit and had their chances. Santa Clara was the agressor trying to find the equalizer but the Red Raiders dug in their heals and refused to let it happen. McCartney and Scursenski both were putting their bodies on the line to block shots in the middle, Bahr was taking on the Broncos top threat one v one with the fearlessness she is known for and Nguyen was making the saves when called upon.

Due to injuries forcing some key players to miss last season, plus new additions via transfers and freshmen, it’s a team that hasn’t been in the fire together like this yet and they came out with the win. Against a true soccer program (just go ahead and hop over to the preview article here if you aren’t aware of Santa Clara’s history.)

“That back line hasn’t played together until this season and this midfield group hasn’t played together in two years, that’s a pretty good effort to show that we could close out a game against a team that had a lot of momentum I couldn’t be happier for them,” said Coach Stone. “Early season wins. We’re going to be better in a month, Santa Clara’s going to be better in a month but for now you know we get out of here with a win and we couldn’t be happier about it.”

Next Up: San Francisco on Sunday

Texas Tech will make the short drive over to San Francisco, California to play the University of San Francisco Dons on Sunday at 11 am PT / 1 pm CT. Fans can stream the game on ESPN+.

“We’ve got to start getting the ones that are going to play a lot of minutes hyped for Sunday because we’re going to lean on our bench quite a bit in that game, and they’ve got to be ready,” said Stone. DJ and Katie, Munger and Caitlin [Athletic Training +Strength & Conditioning staff], this is their Super Bowl. Now, after the game, they’ve got to get us right for Sunday. Thankfully, today’s Thursday, and we’ve got a few days to go, but that’s everything. Now, can we regroup physically and be ready to play a good San Francisco team.”

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