By Ray Cartwright
Frogs Today Staff Writer
NORMAN, Okla. — Second-half breakdowns on defense Thursday night doomed No. 12 TCU in a 2-1 loss to Oklahoma, which snapped the Horned Frogs’ nine-game unbeaten streak despite being dominated at times.
Michelle Slater scored the lone goal for TCU, her second of the season.
TCU missed a chance to move into first place in the Big 12, which makes this loss even more disappointing. Fortunately for the Frogs,they get a chance to rinse this one off quickly as they will be back in action Sunday at Baylor.
“First off, I want to congratulate Oklahoma,” coach Eric Bell said. “I think that we played well enough to win and we created a bunch of chances, but we weren’t able to be clinical in front of the goal. On the flip side, we have to be better in our transition on defense. Oklahoma had one corner kick and they scored on that, so from a concentration standpoint we have to be better. Hopefully this is a wake up call for our group and hopefully we respond in the game on Sunday against Baylor.”
If you were to just simply look at the stat sheet Thursday, you would have thought TCU walked out of Norman with an easy win.
TCU came out of the gates strong, dominating possession in the first half. The Frogs were able to generate numerous scoring chances with 11 shots on goal and six corner kicks.
They finally got on the board in the 35th minute when Slater took control of the ball outside of 18 yards and fired a left-footed strike that found the lower left corner of the net. TCU took a 1-0 lead into half.
The Frogs were again generating numerous chances offensively in the second half as they found every part of the goal but the net. Shots hit the crossbar and the posts, and the Oklahoma goaltender making a couple of nice saves and that left TCU frustrated.
For as good as the offense was, the defense was a letdown. Things unraveled in in the 61st minute when Oklahoma worked the ball deep into TCU territory off of a turnover. Brianna Amos easily chippeed the ball in to equalize the game at 1.
With only nine minutes remaining, Oklahoma had it’s first corner-kick opportunity of the gam and was able to get a cross off that found a wide-open Ellie Geoffroy. She knocked in the game-winner with little challenge from the TCU defense.
TCU tried to mount a furious comeback in the final minutes, generating a whopping four corner kicks in the final two minutes, but were unable pull even. The loss means TCU is now in third place in the conference with two more games left to play.
