No. 18 Texas Tech Lacks Trademark Grit Falling to San Francisco
Texas Tech soccer moved to 3-1 on the season, dropping their Sunday road match with San Francisco 2-0. After scoring 10 goals in their first three games, Tech managed only three total shots on goal against a frustrating Dons defense.
“First you have to give San Francisco credit for how hard they played,” said Texas Tech head coach Tom Stone following the game. “They were all in it today. We usually don’t get ‘out-dueled’ in the air. They played good defense and really did not hurt themselves at all. When that is combined with one of the worst performances I can remember from a Tech team in a while, it was a recipe for disaster, and disaster struck.”
How It Happened
The grit wasn’t quite there 1 through 11 in this from the jump and as Coach Stone noted the Dons frustrated Tech into some uncharacteristic mistakes. San Francisco was the more physical team, fouling 17 times, and winning the intangible battle that is typically a non-negotiable attribute of Texas Tech soccer.
“This team was uncharacteristically not gritty enough today,” continued Coach Stone. “That usually is our trademark, maybe this is a reminder how important that intangible is. You shouldn’t need that reminder but possibly it’s done just that.”
The Dons scored at the 28 minute mark on a solid strike from Kaitlyn Sasadeusz that somehow made its way past the backline and Faith Nguyen in goal. Tech seemed to find the equalizer late in the first half but a Eleanor Hays goal was waived off for offsides.
This had Tech chasing the game in the second half, something they had made a habit of forcing their opponents to do thus far. With the shoe on the other foot, they just could not break the pestering defense from the Dons despite a few good looks. With all the bodies forward, the Dons eeked one more across on a breakaway to push it to a 2-0 final.
“Their first goal doesn’t go really ever on Faith or our team, and we found ourselves in a hole 1-0. And then of course we were trying to equalize so we had two in the back and were sending everyone forward late. The second goal really didn’t bother us because we were willing to risk that to try and tie it. And given the way we played and how well San Francisco played had we equalized we would have been happy getting out of here with a draw.”
Texas Tech had a few good looks, including a great strike late from Peyton Parsons that took an elite effort from Bengtsson-Stenseth in goal to stop. But all in all San Francisco simply had Tech’s number in this and notched a resume building win of their own after the Red Raiders were flying high from doing the same on Thursday.
“Maybe it’s a team that needs to learn you don’t come on the road for one game [of a two game-trip] because the one had a marquee value on Thursday. It was a big game across the country, and you can’t take your foot off the gas. The other is when you play teams that have a plan to frustrate you, you have to deal with that as well. Santa Clara had a plan to beat us and that made the game more winnable for either team. Today was a good game plan by them to make the game frustrating. That’s where their coaching staff deserves credit. We certainly could have done more to counter that and it didn’t happen, and we’re going to have to take our lumps.”
Next Up: Home Versus SMU Thursday 8/28
Texas Tech returns home from their two-game trip to California for a power conference matchup with the ACC’s SMU. First touch at 7 pm at the John Walker Soccer Complex in Lubbock. BE THERE!
It is Code Red night at Ft. Walker on Thursday. Fans are encouraged to wear red. First 250 fans get a Texas Tech stick on phone wallet. There will be a student raffle with multiple prizes for students along with a student tailgate pregame and postgame photos and autographs.
Game will be streamed on ESPN+.
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