Texas Tech Kicks In Door Late For 2-0 Road Shutout Win
For the majority of the first 70 minutes Texas Tech dominated the attack every where but the scoreboard. They ignored the temptation to fall into frustration and instead kept knocking to score twice in the final twenty minutes, both goals from Taylor Zdrojewski (6) off Macy Blackburn assists (7.) Tech outshot New Mexico State 22-1 and had nine shots on goal.
“My dad used to say sometimes there’s no alternative to winning and today there really was no alternative,” said Texas Tech head coach Tom Stone following the game. “We couldn’t tie; we couldn’t lose it. We had to win and played like that in the second half to get it.”
Texas Tech Stat Leaders
Taylor Zdrojewski – 7 shots, 4 SOG, 2 G, 77 min
Macy Blackburn – 2 assists, 4 shots, 1 SOG, 83 min
Raleigh Greason – 1 assist, 2 shots, 2 SOG, 36 min
DEFENSE – 0 goals allowed, only one shot allowed total
How It Happened
Texas Tech looked spry from first touch, taking advantage of the room New Mexico State was giving them to play. It felt like they lived on the Aggie side of the field and about needed to pay rent inside the 18. This seemed to result in one of their trademark early goals when Peyton Parsons dropped off a perfect pass between defenders to Zdrojewski six minutes in. Z turned and finished it backside with class around the keeper who had rushed up on her. Unfortunately the ref ruled her offsides and the goal came off the board. You decide.
In total Tech had 11 shots in the first half. They forced NMSU’s keeper Valerie Guha to make some exceptional saves and in the process test the Red Raiders resolve. There was a 10 minute period to end the first half where, even though it never progressed into a shot attempt, the Aggies seemed to find a bit more success.
“We wanted to get frustrated you could see it,” said Coach Stone. “Thought the last 10 minutes [of the first half] we didn’t act like ourselves. We had kind of lost the plot a little bit. That’s what halftime was for: calm everyone down. Tell them if we create that exact same number of chances in the second half, there’s no way one doesn’t go in.”
After half the Red Raiders immediately tested that theory with Alana Harry pushing forward only seconds in to create a dangerous look. Then minutes later Molly Skurcenski forced yet another save from Guha off a nice run from Kylie Bahr. This pace continued into the 70th minute when the 10th corner of the game resulted in a mint service from the goat herself Blackburn. Her perfect ball in found the head of Zdrojewski who physically was simply superior to the defenders around her and she put Tech up 1-0.
That seemed to only rev up the Red Raider attack more. Raleigh Greason quickly forced another save by the Aggies. Then moments later Tech broke through for their second goal of the game at the 76 minute mark. Couldn’t get anything to go and within 7 minutes they had two. THAT’S WHY YOU KEEP KNOCKING. It’s the relentless attitude that this team is capable of, especialy with Blackburn and Zdrojewski leading the charge.
“If you’re two of the best players on the team, they acted like it tonight when given the chances to win the game for us,” said Coach Stone when asked about this dynamic duo. “It took a great effort from Macy with a beautiful serve on the corner and Z goes up and smashes it in. Once we got that goal, we kind of knew we were going to win. But I was happy that we went for the second one. And that was one of the highlight goals of the year: a diving header from Z. It was magic.”
It absolutely was a goal of the year candidate not just because of the magical finish, but the three player build up leading to the fourth player in Z finishing it off. Starting with a long ball from Millie Elwood up to the freshman Greason who showed off the grace of an Olympic ice skater mixed with karate black belt to toe poke it over to Blackburn. From there you just can’t give the school’s all-time leader in assists that much space to work with and not expect her to serve up a DIME DIME over the head of defenders, across the face of goal and right to the head of a diving Zdrojewski. ART!
The assist moved Blackburn to second in the nation with seven while the goal pushed Zdrojewski to third in the Big 12 in both points and goals. Both players hit to 40 mark in seperate categories in this with Blackburn getting her 40th career assist and Zdrojewski pushing her career point total to 40. It’s a duo that got a late start to their reign of terror due to injuries but ever since they were both back 100% healthy last year together for the first time…it’s been magic.
“We’ve seen how incredible Z is at goal scoring,” said Blackburn. “You get the ball anywhere near her and it’s typically going to go in the back of the net. And Z came up big even though she probably had like five people on her. She knew what the team needed. And you know she did what she’s good at, which is scoring goals.”
That was all the stout Red Raider defense needed. In total, Tech allowed only one shot attempt all game and that was from deep range – easy money for Faith Nguyen. It marks the team’s second straight shutout and third of the year.
“That’s huge for our team,” said the reigning Big 12 Defender of the Week (and Year) Blackburn. “I think that’s huge just to show people that we’re hard to score on. I think our back line and our whole team takes a lot of pride in having shutouts. Tonight we were turned on offensively but I think we were also very turned on defensively. And we were going to make sure that no ball was going in the back of our net.”
Next Up: Home Versus Utah State Sunday 9/14
Texas Tech has a week plus break ahead with their next game at home Sunday, September 14 versus Utah State. First touch set for 1 pm at the John Walker Soccer Complex in Lubbock. BE THERE!
Game will be streamed on ESPN+.
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