The Biola women's soccer team came back to beat Concordia University Irvine in a dramatic 2-1 overtime victory Saturday. The women’s team came into this important match with determination to defeat No. 23 Concordia in their final stretch of regular season games.

“Our defense did a great job shutting down Concordia’s offensive efforts and we had several solid chances offensively,” sophomore Miranda Starbeck said.

Throughout the first half the game remained scoreless, but the tie was broken in the 53rd minute when Concordia’s Val Barrios scored from five yards out to give them the 1-0 lead.

Biola came back, though, with only 14 minutes left to play. Freshman Amanda Otto netted the ball with a leading pass from the right off an assist from junior Jessica Austin to make it a tie match.

“It was really exciting,” Otto said of her second goal so far at Biola. “It was a blessing to be able to score again on the same team. It really asserted my confidence that I can do that.”

Success after going into overtime

With neither team able to score for the remainder of the second half, the game went into overtime. After eight minutes of overtime play, Biola junior Morgan Gage gave Starbeck the assist when she fired in the winning goal for the Eagles. There was a slight delay after an offsides confusion by one of the linesmen but it was short lived, allowing the Eagles to celebrate their well-deserved victory.

“Morgan played an amazing ball into the box and I was open to knock it in,” Starbeck said about the winning goal. “It was such a blessing to get that goal for our team after we had all worked so hard for 98 minutes.”

Biola was able to hold consistent possession of the ball for the entirety of the game.

“[We] created a lot more dangerous opportunities. We’ve been working specifically on creating more in the box around the goal,” Otto said. “It took us a little while to find the back of the net, but it was really rewarding when we did because we had been working on those attacks.”

Now that the Eagles have successfully completed this vital victory, they are ready to begin their final week of regular season play.

Remebering the goal is playing for God

“We want to make this week memorable for each other and ourselves,” Otto said about their final two regular matches. “Our goal is to not only play for God, but play for each other.”

The Saturday win lifts the Biola Eagles to a 5-3-0 record in GSAC and an 8-6-1 record in overall play for the season.

While fighting with The Master’s College for the third place spot heading into playoffs, the Eagles will need to keep their adrenaline pumping into the next two regular season games to secure a top spot in GSAC playoffs. The women return to La Mirada to compete in their final match of the regular season with The Master’s College on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.