Coro: Lopes OT win thrills crowd of 3,208

Sunday, August 27

Phoenix, Ariz.

7:00 p.m.

Grand Canyon

1-3

Weber State

1-3

OT 1

WSU

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Michael Rincon

8/27/2017 9:41:00 PM | Women's Soccer, Paul Coro

Box Score

Madison Cox moves from defense, scores twice

By: <a href="http://gculopes.com/index.aspx?path=coro">Paul Coro</a>

With 20 minutes remaining in regulation time Sunday night, Grand Canyon women's soccer head coach Derek Leader moved senior Madison Cox from defense to the top of the offense.

Cox scored with less than two minutes remaining to send GCU and Weber State to overtime.

Before overtime began, Leader told the Lopes, "Once we score, you guys better end up in that (Havocs) platform."

Cox scored again less than six minutes into overtime to send her teammates, the Havocs and the rest of Sunday's 3,208 fans home happy.

After Welcome Week, the GCU student body needed a release. After a rough start to the season, the Lopes needed a win even more and got it with the 2-1 victory at GCU Stadium that nearly broke the state's women's soccer attendance record.

The Lopes had been seeking traction this season after losing Madison Wisely to a season-ending knee injury, the third in GCU's starting unit since the spring. GCU played better in a Friday night loss at Northern Arizona but found a formula Sunday by applying pressure with a 4-3-3 attack. It looked even better with Cox at the top to finish the Lopes' deluge of chances Sunday.

Midfielder Jessica Wong, one of five GCU starting freshman, set up the overtime goal by taking a throw-in and booting it up field to Cox, who created space from a defender and sent a grounder from the top of the box to the left side of the goal.

Cox sprinted for The Platform, where the Havocs filled the stands an hour before GCU's first athletic event of the year. Her team sprinted across the field, returning the favor of the Havocs storming the field for a season-opening OT goal two years ago.

"I was squished in there," Cox said. "It was the best feeling ever. This was probably my favorite memory so far in soccer."

The Lopes (1-3) trailed Weber State for more than 76 minutes before the tying goal was set up field by junior forward McKenzie Cook, who consistently put teammates in attacking position by sending ball upfield or putting crosses into the box. Cox nearly tied the game on a header in the 79th minute off a Cook pass but a brilliant save kept Weber State ahead 1-0.

With time dwindling in regulation, Cox used a high kick to send the ball down the right side to senior forward Rachel Mina, who crossed the ball past Cox and to sophomore forward Anyssa De Vera on the left side of the box. De Vera controlled the ball and popped the ball up to Cox in the middle, where Cox put it past the oncoming Weber State goalkeeper.

"Pure effort and determination," Leader said. "We talked about taking our chances. We worked on getting over the ball and keeping it down. In the first half, we sent way too many over the top so it was a matter of taking out steps to the ball and contacting it higher.

"We've been adapting and we haven't been able to find our identity and a system we want to play. We've been struggling to get our feet underneath us and I think we were able to do it tonight. We'll be ready for the WAC."

Between matchups and Wisely's injury, the Lopes have used different system for each match but played their cleanest games Friday and Sunday. GCU's first win of the season also avenged losing to Weber State in the previous two seasons.

"It was about time," Cook said on her 20th birthday. "We've been working our butts off for the last two months. It was nice to finally get a win and show what we are really capable of."

To the south of GCU Stadium, a banner touches three stories of the engineering building to declare GCU as "Arizona's home for college soccer." It felt like it Sunday, when the crowd missed the state college women's soccer crowd record by 55 fans.

"The Havocs are amazing," Cox said. "They always are. It was really good we could come back and get the W for them."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.