BOLIVAR, Mo. – Yazmin Gomez picked up her second goal of the season Thursday as Northwestern Oklahoma State women's soccer kicked off its three-game road swing with a 1-1 draw against the Southwest Baptist University Bearcats (0-2-1). The Rangers started to click offensively as they fired a season-high 19 shots while freshman goalkeeper Reagan Allen made five saves on 12 shots.
Five different Rangers produced multi-shot performances in what proved to be the Rangers' most balanced attack of the young 2018 season. Alissa Carlson, Alyssa Nunez, and Karla Lopez and Makayla Barrientos led the offensive threat for the red-and-black as they all recorded at least three shots.
"I thought we played very well from start to finish" said head coach James Ross. "The girls played so hard tonight, but we've got to continue to minimize our mistakes."
Missed opportunities in the first half proved costly as the Rangers gave themselves several chances to take an early lead over the Bearcats. Despite outshooting SBU in the opening frame, the Rangers and Bearcats remained scoreless heading into halftime.
Making her second start between the pipes, Allen continued to stand strong as the 5'6" keeper's only blemish came in the 53rd minute when a defensive miscue in front of her led to a Southwest Baptist goal to make it 1-0. But the Noble, Okla. product bounced back to make some key saves en-route to a 1-1 tie.
"Reagan was phenomenal once again" added Ross. "She comes up with the big time saves to keep us in games."
The Rangers were able to knot things up in the 61st minute when Gomez launched a 50-yard bomb over the head of the leaping SBU goalie Ashlyn Gibbs and into the back of the net for her second goal of the year. Northwestern had a chance to take the lead late, but Nunez' shot in the 88th minute was saved by Gibbs to send this one to overtime.
Tiana Young-Mauchly nearly ended things just over a minute into the first overtime but her attempt was also steered away by Gibbs. Neither team was able to break the deadlock in extra time as the Rangers earned their first draw of the season.
Northwestern (0-2-1) will now turn their focus to Saturday, Sept. 8 when they face Oklahoma Christian (0-3-0) in Edmond, Okla. Game time is slated for 11 a.m. at Eagle Soccer Field.
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