For the UTSA soccer team, so much about Thursday’s home match vs. Tulsa fulfilled a season-long ambition.

The Roadrunners scored an early goal. They were relentless and created numerous scoring opportunities on offense. They held firm on defense.

But the achievements were erased by a 10 1/2-minute span of the first half.

Tulsa capitalized on two defensive miscues and topped UTSA 2-1 in an American Athletic Conference game before a crowd of 1,268 at Park West Complex, the largest this season and No. 2 all-time at the facility.

The setback spoiled an outing in which UTSA displayed one of its best showings this season on offense. The Roadrunners outshot Tulsa 27-6, including 17-1 in the second half, and held a 9-1 edge on corner kicks. But they had little to show for the dominance as several shots hit the crossbar or posts, sailed just wide or high, or were stopped by Tulsa goalkeeper Tatum Sanders, who collected 10 saves.

“We should’ve been 3-0 up in the first 10 minutes,” UTSA coach Derek Pittman said. “We wanted to start with our foot on the gas and be super-aggressive from the get-go. I think we did that. Disappointed that we didn’t put more of them away and that’s just, unfortunately, been the MO of our season — that we lack that killer instinct in front of goal.”

Senior defender Peyton Godbey gave UTSA a 1-0 advantage before some in the crowd had settled into their seats. Godbey ran onto a shot by teammate Tyler Coker that was deflected by a Tulsa defender and redirected the ball just inside the left post only two minutes into the contest.

It was Godbey’s first goal during her two seasons at UTSA. She scored two goals as a freshman at East Carolina in 2021.

“It was really exciting,” Godbey said. “It was a little unexpecting, especially coming from the defensive position.”

When the Roadrunners failed to make the most of the ensuing barrage of scoring chances, it came back to bite them.

Tulsa tied it at 1-1 about 12 minutes later when Ady Bechtel gathered a ball misplayed by UTSA defender Zoe May and fed Leah Diaz, who slotted a shot inside the right post. The Hurricanes notched the game-winner in the 26th minute when Aniya Facen used fancy footwork to elude a few UTSA defenders and deposited a shot to the lower right corner.

“We make two big errors that lead to their goals and the momentum completely shifts in the first half,” Pittman said. “For us to outshoot them 17-1 in the second half, we should’ve put one in. We just didn’t do that.”

But it wasn’t from a lack of trying. UTSA applied pressure throughout the final 45 minutes, including a final chance by defender Kameron Kloza with five seconds remaining.

“We did create a lot of opportunities, and I think sooner or later we’re going to start finishing them,” UTSA senior midfielder Olivia Alvarez said. “We started off exactly the way we wanted to. I don’t think we had any doubt in our minds that we were going to (win).”

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