Golden goal: Clark's buzzer-beater lifts Bobcats over Chanticleers in OT

As the first overtime period of Thursday’s match began to wind down, Texas State public address announcer Nick Ruiz began counting the seconds left on the clock.

“Ten, nine, eight …” Ruiz said over the Bobcat Soccer Complex speakers.

Junior midfielder Bailey Peschel had just crossed the midfield line and kicked the ball up to sophomore midfielder Mya Ulloa, who was met by two Coastal Carolina defenders just outside the 18-yard box.

“… seven, six, five …”

Ulloa split the defenders with a through pass to the left, leaving sophomore midfielder Trinity Clark one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

“… four, three, two …”

“I remember that I was really tired,” Clark said. “I was like, ‘I don't want to play another 10 minutes.’”

Clark toe-poked the ball with her right foot, deflecting it off the Chanticleers’ goalie and finding the bottom right corner of the net with one second left on the clock. The buzzer-beating golden goal earned Texas State a 2-1 overtime win in its first Sun Belt match of the year.

“These guys never quit,” head coach Kat Conner said. “It's a great team, they just never quit. And that's the way they play in practice, too.”

The maroon and gold were the aggressors for the majority of the match, outshooting the visitors on the evening, 25-18. Yet, the hosts still found themselves trailing at halftime after missing on all 16 of their shots in the first half and giving up a goal to Coastal Carolina (2-4-1, 0-1-0 Sun Belt) in the 27th minute.

Conner said she thought her team was trying to “out-physical” the Chanticleers too much through the first 45 minutes and weren't moving the ball enough. The Bobcats also missed on a few chances to swing the ball to an open player on the back post.

But they adjusted well. Eleven minutes into the second half, Ulloa crossed the ball into the box, finding Peschel at the back post. The junior knocked in the equalizer, giving Texas State some momentum.

“I think we just regrouped at halftime,” Peschel said. “You know, coming into the game, we had a mindset, ‘We're not going to lose at home, we're gonna win our first conference game.’ So I think just refocusing, realizing we have what it takes to win (helped) … Mya played me the perfect cross in and I just wanted to get it to the back of the net. And it was a team effort to set it up.”

The teams combined for five more shots throughout the rest of regulation, neither side breaking through. CCU took the first three shots of overtime, one of them placed on goal and being saved by sophomore goalie Beth Agee.

The Bobcats took the final three shots of the period, including Clark's game-winner.

“It's an awesome feeling,” Clark said. “I mean, first conference game I played since last season, since I tore my ACL. So it's really great to be back playing with the team again, I love it so much. It was crazy, I didn't think it was gonna go in and it's a great feeling.”

Texas State (4-2-1, 1-0-0) is now on its first three-match win streak since the 2019 season. The maroon and gold will look to make it four in a row on Sunday when they host Georgia State (6-2-1, 1-0-0) at noon.

“We were just saying that as a coaching staff, I don't think we've ever been a part of like, where we saw the ball trickle in on one second left,” Conner said. “So it was kind of an exciting game, everybody needs to get here on Sunday.”