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Life > Athletics > Soccer > 9/11/07
PIONEERS COME FROM BEHIND TO DROP DALLAS BAPTIST 2-1
 DALLAS, Texas (September 11) – A two-goal outburst in the final seven minutes of play gave the Texas Woman's University Pioneers a 2-1 victory over the Dallas Baptist University Patriots on Tuesday night in Dallas.
TWU started the game slowly, and a goal by DBU senior forward Ashley Pfister in the 18th minute of the first half put the Pioneers in a 1-0 hole.
Despite controlling play and outshooting the Patriots for the majority of the game, the Pioneers still found themselves down a goal as the second half wound down. TWU, however, kept up their offensive attack and their persistence was rewarded in the 84th minute when freshman midfielder Taylor Bullock sent a corner kick sailing into the DBU goal box. Emily Evans, the Patriots sophomore goalkeeper, came off of her line to play the ball. The bending ball, however, caromed off Evans and into a cluster of swirling players in front of the DBU goal. Chastity Hayter, the Pioneers sophomore defender, was able to gain control of the ball and poke it into the Patriots net to tie the game at one. The goal for Hayter was her first of the season.
Buoyed by the momentum of the tying goal, TWU continued to surge into the DBU end of the field. In the 87th minute, the Pioneers registered what proved to be the decisive goal when freshman forward Raven Morales (pictured) weaved her way through a maze of Patriot defenders and lifted the ball past Evans for the game-winning marker. The strike for Morales, her TWU team-high fifth of the year, extended her individual goal scoring streak to four consecutive games.
TWU head coach Fleur Benatar was ecstatic following the dramatic win by her team.
"I can't say enough good things about the way we played tonight," she explained. "DBU is an excellent team, and they had us down early, but we didn't quit. The players stuck to our game plan and kept playing hard. Once we got rolling and started to generate a few scoring chances, I knew it was just a matter of time before we put one in the net. Chastity (Hayter) scored a huge goal for us and then Raven stepped up and made the play to put us in front. I felt like we deserved the win, so it was very rewardinng to see us battle back like that."
The Pioneers gritty come-from-behind victory also came with a bit of irony. The last time TWU and DBU met, on October 3, 2006, at DBU, it was the Patriots who scored in the game's final minute for a 2-1 win. Benatar was pleased to be on the other side of the comeback tonight.
"Oh yeah, I definitely thought about that," she said. "And I know that several of our returning players, like Chastity Hayter, had that on their mind. That's another reason why this win was so special for us."
TWU junior goalkeeper Aly Vincent made six saves on the seven shots she faced to earn her fourth win of the season.
The in-region victory by TWU raised their season record to 3-3-1 and ran the Pioneers current unbeaten streak to four consecutive games (3-0-1). TWU also improved to 4-1-1 all-time against DBU.
Up next for the Pioneers will be a home game this Sunday afternoon, September 16, when they take on the University of the Incarnate Word at 2:00 p.m. at the TWU Soccer Feld.
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