October 20, 2009

Penalty kick leads to 1-0 loss for Lady Tiger soccer team

Playing Neosho County to a scoreless tie through the first 88 minutes of Monday’s game in Arkansas City, the Cowley College women’s soccer team got called for a foul inside the box with only 1:49 showing on the clock.

The foul set up a penalty kick for Neosho County’s Kayla Bell, and the sophomore from Fort Gibson, OK, drilled a shot past Lady Tiger goalie Katie Ybarra to give the Lady Panthers a 1-0 win.

After fighting so hard, it was a disappointing ending to the game.

“This loss was very disheartening,” Cowley head coach Dane Straight said. “If the penalty kick happens earlier in the game we would have had a better chance to come back. We still had plenty of time to score, but it (the penalty kick) really knocked us down and made it tough for us to get back up in time.”

Ybarra made eight saves for the Lady Tigers and kept her team in the game, while Cowley was unable to capitalize on its scoring opportunities.

“We should have put the game away long before they scored on the penalty kick,” Straight said.

Cowley is now 8-7 overall and 6-5 in the Region VI standings. Neosho County jumped ahead of the Lady Tigers into fifth place in the region as they are now 10-7 overall and 7-4 in the region.

Cowley lost its final five home games as they finished 2-6 at home this season. Last season, Cowley was 7-1 at home.

The Lady Tigers, which are 6-1 on the road, will play an important game at Cloud County on Wednesday at 2 p.m. The Lady Thunderbirds could move into a tie for sixth place with Cowley with a win on Wednesday, and would own the tiebreaker over the Lady Tigers.

“We want to finish the regular season on a high note and have some confidence heading into the playoffs,” Straight said.