EVANSVILLE, Ind.--The University of Evansville women's soccer team was six minutes away from winning Friday afternoon, but that was enough time for the Drake Bulldogs to finish off the Aces' home field unbeaten streak.
Drake scored at 84:53 to tie the match and got the golden goal early in overtime to beat Evansville 4-3. It was the first loss at Black Beauty Field for Evansville since October of 2006. The Aces were 9-0-1 at home since then before losing Friday.
Drake is now 5-7-2 overall and 2-1-0 in the Missouri Valley Conference. Evansville is 9-3-2 and 2-1-1, and the Aces hit the road Sunday to play league-leading Illinois State.
Drake scored the only goal of the first half at 7:47 when the Bulldogs strung together three passes to reach Melissa Lewis on the right side of the penalty area. Her shot from eight yards away nicked the far post and got into the goal. Evansville tied the match at 46:28 when Julie Winkler's hard shot from 25 yards went high into the left side of the net, and the Aces took their first lead at 49:49 on Kaitlynn Radtke's first goal of the year, thanks to assists from Kayla Lambert and Nicole Moyan.
Just 11 seconds later, however, Drake tied it up 2-2 when Crystal Townley slipped behind the defense and put a wide open shot past UE goalkeeper Theresa Bagby. Evansville regained the lead at 61:26 when MVC scoring leader Kayla Lambert turned and fired a shot from 18 yards past Drake's Jenny Schroeder for her ninth goal of the year. The lead didn't stay intact, though. Nikki Thaden's long free kick found Katie Sauer, who headed in the tying goal at 84:53. Then, just under three minutes into overtime, Sarah Foote made a perfect pass between two defenders to Ali Walsh, who gathered it up and took a wide open shot that Bagby couldn't reach.
Drake has now beaten the Aces six times in a row. They could still meet later this season. The top four teams come to Evansville on Nov. 9 for the semifinals of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. UE also hosts the championship match, on Nov. 11.
