Women's Soccer Completes Wild Second-Half Comeback

SAN ANTONIO — The emotions for the St. Mary's University Women's Soccer team and its fans swung from the lowest of lows at halftime to the highest of highs by the final buzzer as they completed a 4-3 comeback win over Westminster after trailing 3-0 at the half.
 
The Griffons (0-1-1) scored three goals in a seven-minute span from the 34th minute through the 41st for the 3-0 lead at the break. The Rattlers (1-1-0) remained on the field for halftime, sitting in a circle behind the bench and focusing in on each other. The move seemed to pay off as StMU scored less than six minutes in.
 
After Westminster sent the ball to midfield on a free kick, junior transfer Ana Parra (San Antonio) grabbed the ensuing free ball and passed it to senior Natalie Gonzalez (El Paso, Texas). Gonzalez launched the shot from midway between the center circle and the penalty arc, and the ball rolled between the keeper's legs for the first point.
 
Eleven minutes later, sophomore Malia Dominguez (Helotes, Texas) lobbed a pass over a defender to junior Sydney Varela (El Paso), who found the back left corner of the goal from the right side to pull the Rattlers within one.
 
In the 66th minute, senior Laura Poole (Allen, Texas) bounced her throw in off a defender, and junior Shelby Paniagua (Cibolo, Texas) picked up the ball and found Gonzalez, who spun and launched a shot from almost the same place as her first goal. The ball flew over the goalkeeper's head into the top right corner of the net to knot the score at 3-3.
 
With less than seven minutes remaining, Paniagua took a free kick from close to the team bench and bent the ball to the far side of the goal, where a streaking Alexis Truitt (Boerne, Texas) headed the game-winner into the bottom left of the net for the victory.
 
The Rattlers head to Colorado for a pair of matches against RMAC foes. StMU will play in a rematch of the First Round of the NCAA Tournament, facing UCCS on Thursday, Sept. 12 at 8:30 p.m. (CT). They then head to Denver to play at Regis on Saturday, Sept. 14 at noon.
 
Notes:

• The two assists by Shelby Paniagua move her into sole possession of seventh place in school history with 16. She needs two more to jump into a tie for fifth with Kyle Hyslop (2003-06) and Kelly Shaughnessy (1997-99) with 18.
• It is the third time in her career Paniagua has had multiple assists in a game.
• The game-winner for Alexis Truitt is the third in her StMU career and fourth overall as she kicked one in 2022 at Sam Houston State.
• For the first time in her career (72 games), Natalie Gonzalez scored twice in a single game. Four times previously, she has scored one goal in a contest. They are the third and fourth goals at St. Mary's for the graduate student.