Late equalizer pushes Tech to 1-1 home draw against UH

Thursday, September 25

Lubbock, Texas

7 p.m.

Texas Tech Athletics

7-1-1, 1-0-1

Houston

6-0-3, 1-0-1

Houston

Texas Tech

Late equalizer pushes Tech to 1-1 home draw against UH

September 25, 2025 | Women's Soccer

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Macy Blackburn scored from the spot to secure the Red Raiders a point in the Big 12 home opener

By: Andrew Stern

LUBBOCK, Texas – A late Macy Blackburn penalty kick pushed Texas Tech Soccer to a 1-1 draw against the University of Houston, Thursday night at the John Walker Soccer Complex.

The PK was awarded after defender Molly Skurcenski was chopped down deep in the 18-yard box.

Down 1-0 for the second-straight home match, Texas Tech (7-1-1, 1-0-1 Big 12) used the 83rd-minute Blackburn goal to extend the September unbeaten streak to 19-straight matches (15-0-4).

With the result and the other results around the Big 12 Conference on the first full week of Big 12 play, the Red Raiders sit tied for second at 1-0-1 with UH, Colorado, West Virgina and Arizona State. After drawing against KST, Colorado defeated Iowa State 3-1 at home Thursday, while Arizona State after defeating BYU in Tempe, drew OSU at home.

WVU after playing UCF to a scoreless 0-0 draw, defeated BYU 3-2 last tonight, while TCU currently leads the league after defeating K-State tonight on the road 1-0.

In the draw, the Red Raiders attempted 10 corners and out shot Houston (6-0-3, 1-0-1 Big 12) 10-8. Tech has now outshot all nine of its opponents and have taken 36 more corners than its opponents (64-28) this season.

After a slow start that saw Houston (6-0-3, 1-0-1 Big 12) take the matches first four shots, it was Blackburn who nearly put the Red Raiders on top in the 29th minute when her high rising shot was turned away by UHs Lexi Gonzelez.

The shot by Blackburn, the PK and a Skylar Hasse header with five seconds left in the first half were the only three shots on goal that the Red Raiders would manage on the night.

The late first half header by Haase deep in the 45th minute was stopped by Gonzalez with her face for one of the goalkeepers two saves.

Following the break, the Red Raiders once again had a strong opportunity to find the go-ahead goal, as a Skurcenski feed found a wide-open Peyton Parsons, but her shot attempt went wide of the frame.

Nearly 10 minutes after the Parsons attempt, the Cougars finally broke the ice when off a failed clearance, Blake Hodgson slipped a through-ball to Samira Minor who ripped a right footed shot into the top-right corner of the net.

The goal, 22 seconds into the 60th minute, gave the Cougars the lead at 1-0.

Moments later, in the 69th minute, the Red Raiders normally reliable combination of Blackburn and Taylor Zdorjewski nearly equalized, but a rising Zdrojewski header went over the net. The header was one of four shots Zdrojewski managed on the night and kept the visitors in front 1-0.

With the clock ticking down a perfect through-ball found Skurcenski who chopped down by Houston's Alex Whitcraft deep in the Cougars 18-yard box for a PK.

After video review, the PK stood, and Blackburn stepped to the spot and slipped a ball past Gonzalez and into the left-corner of the net.

The goal for Blackburn marks the third-straight match that the Red Raiders have scored from the spot.

Armed with the momentum, the Red Raiders nearly went in front 40 seconds later, when a perfect cross from Haase found Zdrojewski in the box, but her header again went over the goal.

Deep in the 85th minute, the Red Raider looked to have slipped in Zdrojewski on a long through ball before a foul was called on the Red Raiders leading scorer.

That chance would be the penultimate of the night for the Red Raiders with the only other chance coming for Freshman Raleigh Greason who ripped a shot off a slotted Kylie Bahr pass that was blocked away by the Cougar defense. Greason made her first career start on Thursday night tallying 59 minutes.

The rebound fell to Blackburn, but her flick towards Haase was steered away for a throw-in. On the ensuing throw in, Greason's flip throw was deflected out of bounds off the Red Raiders for the final goal kick of the night.

HEAD COACH TOM STONE:
"We had to defend a lot of aspects of the game that we brought on ourselves tonight. There were a lot of self-inflicted wounds, and our turnover ratio was outrageous. Part of our turnovers tonight were Houston. This is a team [Houston] that is on the move. Ben has done a phenomenal job and there's a reason he's had great results everywhere he's been, and he's getting great results here. Houston deserves a lot of credit, but the number of times we kicked it out-of-bounds or right to them was us being poor. This wasn't our best performance at home, and we were fortunate to get the opportunity to equalize it late and salvage the point. We're happy with that, but overall, we're not very pleased. We were really good at going from side-to-side and we kept looking for number advantages on the flank. When we got those opportunities we were really dangerous, then we got away from it. We got away from it and kicked a bunch of balls out of bounds and passed the ball right to Houston, which is unlike us to be so poor in possession. Houston must have had something to do with that with their press. They flooded the flanks with players so if we didn't get over there quickly enough, we had to start over again. We had to stay patient and keep going from one side to the other to keep looking for that opportunity. We got impatient and started to shove balls into Z and the attacking-mids that had people all over them. Our poor decision making was made worse by the fact that they're a really good counter-attacking team and have really good athletes up front. So, when they did pick up the ball and got the ball in our end of the field it was hard to deal with them.

UP NEXT:
The Red Raiders will look to win the weekend on Sunday afternoon when they put a six-match road Big 12 winning streak on the line at Iowa State. First touch from Ames is set for 1 p.m.