North Texas Daily

Scott Sidway / Staff Writer

For the second week in a row, the Mean Green soccer team gave up a 1-0 lead with seconds to go in regulation and fell 2-1 in double overtime at home, this time to Gonzaga University.

It was déjà vu for North Texas (6-2), who came 37 seconds away from defeating Oklahoma last week before allowing a last second goal in regulation.  This week, the Mean Green’s 1-0 lead held for over 60 minutes, but Gonzaga was able to tie the game with seven seconds remaining to force overtime.

“Good teams don’t do that,” head coach John Hedlund said. “That’s basically what I told this team. We could easily be 8-0 right now. We thought we learned our lesson against OU, but apparently we did not.”

And just like last week, North Texas couldn’t withstand the overtime periods, giving up the game winning goal in the second overtime off of a header from Gonzaga senior forward Mikayla Anderson.

Junior goalkeeper Jackie Kerestine, who was seconds away from setting the UNT all-time shutout record, was visibly frustrated after the match, kicking the ball with force near a group of celebrating Gonzaga players. She said that she believes the team can rebound, but the current trend of not closing games is disturbing.

“I’m frustrated. It’s happened two Friday night games in a row,” Kerestine said. “I just think we need to keep our focus until the very end.”

Hedlund said while Kerestine may have lost sight of the ball on the final goal, the game should never have gone into overtime.

“The game is won and lost in regulation,” Hedlund said. “It’s so hard to come back when you give up a goal with six seconds to play.”

The lone North Texas goal came from junior midfielder Karla Pineda in the 28th minute. After a Gonzaga foul, Pineda curved the free kick over every defender’s head and into the far left corner of the net.

But despite the first half goal for the Mean Green, the squad once again could not seal the deal.  Junior defender Tess Graham also showed frustration, but said that the team needs to just move on.

“We definitely shouldn’t have lost to that team,” Graham said. “We just have to learn from it, and just come back Sunday and beat TCU.”

The Mean Green will wrap up their non-conference schedule against the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs at home on Sunday at 1:00 p.m.