No. 25 Texas Tech soccer celebrates as they score the game-winning goal with one second remaining to beat the Texas Longhorns 2-1, Sept. 21, 2023, at Mike A. Myers Stadium and Soccer Field. (courtesy of Texas Tech Athletics) 
Texas Tech soccer piles close to the middle of the field after taking down Texas with one second remaining, Sept. 21, 2023, at Mike A. Myers Stadium and Soccer Field. (courtesy of Texas Tech Athletics) 
Texas Tech soccer captain Hannah Anderson does the “guns up” sign with Macy Blackburn after Blackburn’s free kick went to Anderson for the game-winning goal over the Texas Longhorns, Sept. 21, 2023, at Mike A. Myers Stadium and Soccer Field. (courtesy of Texas Tech Athletics)
The entire game between the No. 25 Texas Tech Red Raider soccer team and the No. 14 Texas Longhorns was close, and in the final two minutes, it looked headed to a 1-1 draw.
Breanna Thompson had a shot for Texas that went wide left, and as Texas Tech had the ball, freshman midfielder Sam Courtwright was fouled by Texas’s Ashlyn Miller, who received a yellow card, with four seconds left in the game.
A deep free kick from the middle third from redshirt sophomore Macy Blackburn went to “granny” fifth-year senior captain Hannah Anderson, who headed it over Texas goalkeeper Megan Hogate inside the box.
No Texas defender was able to clear it, and it bounced into the goal with one second left to give the Red Raiders (8-0-2, 2-0-0 Big 12) a 2-1 victory over the Longhorns (7-2-1, 1-1 Big 12) at Mike A. Myers Stadium and Soccer Field in Austin.
It was Texas Tech’s first win over Texas since Nov. 6, 2020 (1-0), first win in Austin against Texas since Oct. 27, 2019 (2-1 in overtime), and Texas’s first home loss in Big 12 play since Sept. 11, 2020 (1-0 loss to Kansas).
Texas Tech goalkeeper Madison White made three saves and even got a hand on the shot that was Texas’ lone goal. Anderson’s goal was her third of the season and second off a header, while junior Ashleigh Williams got her 10th goal of the year in the 12th minute, her new career-high for a season.
“A tale of two halves…” in the first half
In the halftime interview with the Longhorn Network, Tech head coach Tom Stone said Tech was aggressive up until they got the goal from Williams. The goal was off a great pass from sophomore left back Kylie Bahr to super-senior striker Alex Kerr, but Kerr’s shot went off the post and ended up with Williams, who put it in.
Texas dealt with multiple injuries, including starting goalkeeper Mia Justus, who was subbed out at 28:57 for Hogate after she got hurt coming down from catching the ball and was fouled by Williams.
Until Kerr had a good shot at 36:49 that was saved by Hogate, Tech only had two shots, and they finished the first half with just three.
Texas outshot them 9-3 in the first half, and right after Hogate’s save, Byars got a good look from the right side of the box and put it in despite White’s block to get the equalizer about 38 minutes in.
One. Second. Left.
Texas Tech and Texas combined for 17 shots in the second half, with Texas Tech having 10 and Texas having seven.
They weren’t able to put too many on goal, even as each team had good opportunities.
For example, about six minutes into the second half, Tech redshirt freshman Taylor Zdrojewski had a header off a great cross from senior Elise Anderson that Zdrojewski hit wide right.
Later, Blackburn had to block a shot from Byars, and then Tech senior Gisselle Kozarski had a great shot that she hooked wide left.
Byars looked like she had a goal with under seven minutes to go, but she was offside receiving the pass, so it was still tied.
And then, with four seconds to go, the referees called the foul and gave Texas’ Miller the yellow card that set up the Blackburn free kick to Hannah Anderson for the goal that was scored with one second remaining.
Important victory for Texas Tech
It’s hard to understate what this means for Texas Tech.
After getting the No. 25 ranking Tuesday in the United Soccer Coaches poll for their first ranking in over two years, they suddenly were getting their toughest test of the season to that point.
Tech came into the weekend ninth in RPI, the highest of any Big 12 team, but they still had to prove that against a Texas team that was 40th in RPI but ranked No. 14 and had massive wins with goals left and right from Byars and Lexi Missimo.
Of course, Tech didn’t have a much better non-conference schedule than Texas did, if they did, but Williams had four straight multi-goal games before not scoring for four games in a row coming into Thursday.
The backline was extremely strong overall, but there were some gaffes throughout non-conference play that allowed some goals that White wasn’t in a good position to save, although she still saved most of those shots.
After beating Houston on Sept. 14, both head coach Stone and White said they didn’t play their best even in the 3-0 win. Of course, when asked about it, White said something interesting.
“I think, as long as I’ve been at Tech, I’ve been on a lot of great teams, but I don’t know how many teams I’ve been on that have been able to win 3-0 and not play well,” White said, although she clarified that a bit. “Not that we didn’t play well, but that was not our best game, and you’re on a team that’s still manhandling another team and is not playing their best, I think that’s really special.”
Fast forward to Thursday, and Tech now has a win over a great Longhorn team in their last year in the Big 12, holding a team that was scoring over four goals a game to just one.
It’s still a tough Big 12 headlined by a No. 6 BYU team that fought back to tie TCU 3-3 Sept. 14 and beat Baylor 4-0 Thursday, but Texas also beat Baylor 4-0, so Tech should be near the top of this race going forward.
Under Stone, they’ve made seven NCAA tournament trips but none since 2019, and at the very least, it feels like the tournament is in this team’s future and maybe even more, like a Big 12 title.
Up Next
The Red Raiders should celebrate this one for a while, but they will have to find a way to focus Sunday at 1 p.m. when they go up I-35 to play Baylor in Waco.
The last time they took a weekend trip to Waco and Austin was in 2021. They played Baylor first and lost a tight one 3-2 before losing to Texas 1-0, so they’ve already surpassed their 2021 exploits in that sense.
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