TCU Soccer rallies for a comeback win against K-State

TCU Soccer came away with a 3-2 come-from-behind win over Kansas State in the Frogs’ last home game of the season.

Horned Frog faithful showed up and showed out! 2,680 people were in the stands last night, good enough for the 4th highest attendance at Garvey-Rosenthal of all time.

“We had an awesome crowd tonight. We saw a lot of people in purple and the stands were packed. I think our kids played off the energy they provided and we are really happy they came out to support,” said Head Coach Eric Bell.

This wasn’t the only record-setting aspect of the Frogs win last night. TCU moved to a 14-2-1 record on the year, which ties a program record for most regular season wins first set in 2008.

Enough about records, let’s get into the game itself.

With the Frogs on top of the Big 12 standings and K-State towards the bottom with a 1-4-2 record before last night’s contest, one would think this would be a rather straightforward game for TCU.

Well, not so much.

Despite being 9th in the Big 12 table, K-State has played spoiler this season. The Wildcats pulled off a tie against both West Virginia and Baylor in the past few weeks and had their sights set on taking down the defending champs.

Disregarding the Wildcats recent success, the first half opened exactly how you would have expected it too. TCU was dominating possession, picking out virtually whatever passes they wanted wherever they wanted them, and finished the first 45 with 12 shots and a goal.

The first goal of the night was a textbook soccer play. A beautiful through ball from Camryn Lancaster found Messiah Bright in the box for the easy finish just nine minutes into the game.

***Unfortunately, this game was not broadcast on ESPN+ so we are unable to include video replays***

Surprisingly this was the only goal to show for the Frogs’ first half efforts. The score sheet read 1-0, but the vibe of the game felt more like it was 3-0.

For the first 45, TCU dominated possession and did a great job of keeping the ball in the attacking third. I wouldn’t quite say the Frogs took their foot off the gas pedal, but something changed when the second half started.

K-State came out with a vengeance, scoring two goals in the first 13 minutes of the second half to stun the Frogs and hush the crowd. The Wildcats’ first goal came off a mistake in the Frogs’ back line, where the K-State player intercepted it for an easy 1-on-1 with the keeper. Shortly after, they scored a banger from 20+ yards out into the top-right corner.

Kellett played a solid game, saving two of the Wildcats’ four shots on goal, but the ones that found the back of the net would be a tough task for anyone to stop.

The Frogs had every opportunity to crumble after conceding back-to-back goals, but good teams find ways to win games.

TCU wasted no time in finding the equalizer. Just eight minutes later, the Horned Frogs pulled off a spectacular team play from top to bottom as Gracie Brian tied the game at two goals apiece.

Messiah Bright and Brandi Peterson were both credited with the assist on Brian’s sixth goal of the season.

A short 128 seconds later, Camryn Lancaster scored another one and gave the Frogs a 3-2 lead in the 68th minute.

The remainder of the game was controlled by TCU for the most part, who nearly scored two or three more after taking the lead. The Frogs finished the night with an outstanding 27 shots compared to K-State’s 8.

This was far from an easy game for the Frogs as K-State played a tough, physical brand of soccer, but again - good teams find ways to win games.

“We knew that it was going to be a difficult team to play based on how they had performed,” said Bell. “I thought we started the game well and had a ton of chances but we didn’t put ‘em away and with teams like this that are fighting for their lives, as far as conference tournament play is concerned, you know they’re not going to give up.”

When asked about the Frogs’ slow start to the second half, coach Bell had nothing but praise for Coach Dibbini and the young K-State soccer program.

“Credit to them. Coach Dibbini has done a really good job at building a program in a power 5 league which is really hard to do. Credit to them and they’re going to continue getting better which is good for our league,” said Bell.

With the win last night, TCU improved their lead atop the Big 12 table now with 19 points ahead of Texas with 15 and Baylor with 14.

TCU has just one regular season game remaining, a road trip to Lubbock. The Frogs take on Texas Tech this Thursday at 7 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.