Fookes-fueled Mustangs oust West Texas A&M in OT

November 4, 2011
ABILENE, Texas - The apprehension swung about as fast as Payton Fooke''s sprint along the top West Texas A&M''s 18-yard box in Friday afternoon''s Lone Star Conference Championship semifinals at the Wildcat Soccer Pitch. The freshman forward from Wichita Falls poked the ball away from Lady Buffs'' goalkeeper Yvette Bedoy to notch the equalizer allowing Kelsey Hill to go ''Abby Wambach'' on a header off of a corner kick in overtime to give Midwestern State an unlikely 2-1 win over WT. "We have it cross bars and suffered close losses all year," MSU coach Jeff Trimble said. "That''s what makes it even more special for this group of girls to overcome this." West Texas A&M''s Becky McMullen bent a corner kick into goal to give the Lady Buffs a 1-0 lead in the 13th minute. "I felt like we came out flat and they had more energy," Trimble said. "And WT has a really good defensive team and that makes it even more difficult to score." But the Mustangs kept coming by outshooting the Lady Buffs 11-6 in the first half and 10-2 in the second and just couldn''t seem to find a break for the equalizer. That''s when Bedoy appeared a little too casual waiting for a slow rolling ball off of the boot of MSU''s Maddie Fraser to reach the box in the 85th minute. "She was letting it roll toward her and waited too long," Trimble said. "That was the game. The feeling on the bench switched to we''re going to win this game and soon." Five minutes into the overtime period, Maddie Fraser served the ball to the back post and Hill leaped high to head in not only the game winner or her 10th goal of the season, but also took over sole leadership as Midwestern''s all-time goals (44) and points (107) leader. "To get the record like that just shows how big time of a player she is," Trimble said. "She''s been banged up and that really shows the heart and determination she has." Midwestern State (12-5-2) advances to its seventh LSC Championship final and will face the winner of Friday afternoon''s semifinal contest between Abilene Christian and Texas A&M-Commerce. Kickoff is set for Sunday at 1 p.m. West Texas A&M closes the season at 9-10-1.
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