Northern Oklahoma College Soccer swept Eastern Oklahoma State College Sunday in the 2021 season opener at Maverick Field.
The Maverick women were 3-2 winners on a header by Milica Bulatovic with :03 left in overtime while the men scored two early goals and held off Eastern 2-1.
Mavs’ Women 3, Eastern 2
Bulatovic scored two goals while Cory Torres added one to lead NOC to the 3-2 win.
Bulatovic, a sophomore from Serbia, scored the game winner on a corner from Janet Moreno in the game’s waning seconds.
“What a game,” said coach Michael DuRoy. “We played well. Eastern showed a ton of heart playing with a limited roster in that heat. It was a fun game to watch.”
“Overall it was a good first game,” he said. “We did some things well, and got exposed on some things. We will recover on Monday, watch some film, and work on some things on Tuesday to get ready for a great team coming in on Wednesday.”
NOC outshot Eastern 21-9. Goal keeper Jordan Webster had two saves, allowing two goals in the opener.
Mavs 2, Eastern 1
The #17 Mavs were led by Marcovich Brown and Damorney Hutchinson who scored goals less than 2:00 apart in the first half to give NOC a 2-0 early lead.
Eastern scored midway in the second half cutting the lead to 2-1 but the Mavs held on for the 2-1 lead.
The Mavs had a key red card in the first half that changed the momentum of the game according to coach DuRoy.
“The red card killed us,” said coach Michael DuRoy. “It’s not just that we went a man down for most of the game it’s the position that got sent off. We started the game without four center midfielders, two of which would most likely have started the game. Then we get a center mid sent off, and another gets a yellow card. We couldn’t trust him not to get another yellow and get sent off leaving us two players down. So, in essence we played the majority of the game without six center mids. That is difficult under any circumstances. Add in the heat and you get what happened today. We were fortunate to win.”
“We should learn a lot from this game, hopefully,” he added. “This team has a lot of skill and athleticism. We haven’t shown a lot of toughness and selfdiscipline though. It’s nearly impossible to be a great team without those ...
