Solid defense leads to double-overtime tie

The Marshall soccer team visited the Cougars on Sunday at Robertson Stadium and UH achieved third double overtime of the season. The Cougars and the Thundering Herd finished in a 1-1 tie.

“It wasn’t what we were looking for,” said junior midfielder Kylie Cook. “We wanted a win and that’s what we came here for. We attacked more, but we need to capitalize more on our opportunities. We can’t expect to get in behind their line and not finish a play multiple times a game.”

By the end of the first half, UH appeared more aggressive toward the goal.

“I thought we ended the first half with good playing of possession, and we could have continued that the second half when we gave up a cheap goal,” said head coach Chris Pfau.

Three minutes into the second half, Marshall netted a ball to the left of the goal past junior goalkeeper Cami Koski.

“And that’s when we decided to play,” Pfau said. “It’s a team that we started to control in the first half, it’s a game we needed to win and push forward and it’s fear of failure. Some of them have it, some of them don’t and until we get rid of that, it’s going to be tied games and losses.”

The Cougars failed on their next two shots on goal before finally hitting the net on an awarded penalty shot courtesy of a Marshall handball that Cook sunk at the 40-minute mark.

Missed opportunities remained throughout the remainder of the game, specifically during the last 10 minutes.

“We just need to focus more,” Cook said. “We can play, and we all play well together; it’s just, we’re not capitalizing.”

Five minutes into overtime, sophomore forward Kelsey Zamora nearly netted a goal off a pass from junior forward Sami Sackos before the keeper blocked it.

Thirty seconds into the second overtime, senior forward Katelyn Rhodes scored a goal, only to have it stricken for being offside. A final attempt occurred during the last two minutes when junior midfielder Jasmine Martinez delivered a ball right into the hands of Marshall’s keeper.

The Cougars, now 4-6-3 and 0-2-3 in conference, head back on the road this weekend in hopes of making up points to get into the Conference USA tournament, a goal which they cannot achieve without wins.

“One point out of the weekend is not going to get us into the conference tournament,” Pfau said. “You hope every game means something. I still think if we can get two or three wins in a row, we have a good shot. We have five games left. We just have to keep playing along and hope it clicks.”

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