TCU Soccer falls to Baylor at home

TCU Soccer has now lost two of their last three games after suffering a 2-1 defeat against Baylor this afternoon.

It was a tough weekend all around for TCU Athletics, first with the football team falling to those damn Ponies from Dallas, and now this. Losing to Baylor is never fun, but at least Soccer’s rivalry game was competitive (can’t say the same for Football).

Despite the negative result, the Horned Frogs were in control of this one for the majority of the game. They were stringing passes together, finding open space, having quality chances on goal - but nothing broke through.

On paper, TCU was dominant. The Frogs finished with 21 shots compared to the Bears’ 9, had three times as many corner kicks, and forced the Baylor keeper to make 7 saves. For some reason though, the ball just didn’t want to go in the back of the net.

“We weren’t dangerous enough in the final third, especially in the first half,” said Head Coach Eric Bell. “At the end of the day it doesn’t matter about this or that or whether the ball went over the line or it didn’t. We’ve got to stop them from scoring goals and score one more goal than them. That’s the bottom line.”

The Frogs’ weren’t silenced for all 90 minutes though as their lone goal of the afternoon came from the penalty spot. Baylor got called for a handball inside the box in the 84th minute and Grace Collins converted to score her sixth goal of the season.

Just minutes later, with the Frogs down by 1 with less than 5 minutes of time remaining on the game clock, Camryn Lancaster’s shot bounced off the crossbar in heartbreaking fashion. As Coach Bell hinted at, there was some controversy as to whether or not the ball crossed the line for a goal.

Considering collegiate soccer does not use instant replay (stupid), the call on the field as no goal and play resumed. Fast forward to after the game, and some Horned Frog faithful did some investigating.

Call me crazy, but that’s a goal.

Although the game didn’t go as planned, the Frogs never quit. TCU fired off the final 9 shots of the game in search of an equalizer, but the Baylor keeper had a fantastic performance to stump the Frogs.

The Frogs forced Baylor’s keeper to make 7 saves, 5 of which were in the second half.

What’s even more frustrating than losing to Baylor is losing to Baylor after playing a great game. Other than a lack of finishing, there is hardly anything to complain about from the Frogs’ performance.

TCU dominated possession (for the most part) and was able to dictate the pace of the game, which makes the final result all the more aggravating. A Big 12 loss hurts, but it doesn’t hurt as much as you would think.

This league is incredibly competitive, and I would be shocked if any team came out of conference play with an unblemished record. Winning a Big 12 regular season title with one loss, hell even two losses, is still a realistic goal. The Frogs will be just fine.

The next step towards that would be securing a win on the road against Texas this Thursday. When Coach Bell was asked “What’s the focus for the next couple of games?” he responded:

“It’s only one game. We aren’t focused on a couple of games, we are focused on just one, which is Texas. All our efforts and energy and things we are thinking about are going towards beating the Longhorns,” said Bell.

TCU Soccer’s three-game homestead has come to an end, finishing with a 1-2 record. The Frogs will travel to Austin this Thursday to take on the Texas Longhorns. Game time is set for 6 p.m. CST and will be broadcasted on the Longhorn Network.