No. 22 San Diego State rallied from a pair of deficits and took the lead, but could not hold on as the Aztecs and Central Florida battled to a 4-4 double-overtime tie in a highly entertaining affair Friday afternoon at SDSU Sports Deck. With the result, the preseason Mountain West favorite’s record moves to 3-1-1, while the Knights remain even at 1-1-1.

 

UCF, the Conference USA preseason pick to win the league, wasted little time in getting on the scoreboard as Andrea Rodrigues posted her first goal of the campaign just 2 minutes, 29 seconds into the game. The midfielder corralled the ball on the left side of the pitch and knocked in her only shot attempt of the game from 25 yards out.

 

The Aztecs struggled to find its offensive rhythm, but continued to work and their effort paid off in the 27^th minute when Haley Palmer located Cat Walker along the left side. With the ball in the open field between Walker and Knight goalkeeper Aline Reis, Walker touched the ball once, Reis tripped and Walker calmly tucked her shot into the lower right corner to knot the score at 1-1.

                                                

Not 10 minutes later with Central Florida on the attack, Tishia Jewell sent in a pass to Nicolette Radovcic. The forward appeared to be offsides, but no call was made and the junior put her shot past Aztec keeper Rachel Boaz from eight yards out.

 

The Knights increased their lead to 3-1 after halftime in the 58^th minute when Bianca Joswiak knocked in an amazing shot from roughly 23 yards away. The defender found herself on the right side of the pitch and blasted a rocket into the upper left corner. Jewell was credited with her second assist of the afternoon.

 

The matched turned on a dime almost exactly two minutes later when SDSU forward Megan Jurado was taken down in the box. The Aztecs were awarded a penalty shot, which Walker confidently cashed in, to bring San Diego State to within one goal of tying the score. The multi-goal performance was Walker’s first since scoring twice vs. New Mexico on Oct. 23, 2009, and gives her four on the season.

 

Then 43 seconds later in the 60^th minute, Soledad Gomez found reigning Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week Tiffany Hurst, who was along the left side of the box and almost near the end line. The junior sent a ball in that bended into the far upper left corner past the leaping Reis to level the score at 3-3. The game-tying goal was Hurst’s second of 2011.

 

SDSU continued to control the time of possession and MW Offensive Player of the Week Haley Locker found herself with the ball. The freshman headed it to Gomez, who then proceeded to take the ball into the box where she hit Locker with a pass and the Seattle native made it look easy, scoring from six yards out in front of the net. The go-ahead goal was Locker’s second of the season, while Gomez notched her second assist of the game and of the campaign.

 

Trailing by a goal, Central Florida continued to look for ways to tie the score. In the 84^th minute, the Knights were awarded a corner kick, which resulted in a Kayla Darden shot that hit the crossbar. As the ball was loose in front of the net, Marissa Diggs possessed the ball and scored to tie the game at 4-4.

 

The contest eventually moved to overtime where San Diego State attempted two shots while limiting UCF to just one. In the second 10-minute period, meanwhile, the Knights had one shot to SDSU’s zero as the teams settled for the hard-fought draw.

 

Much like the score, all other statistical areas were nearly even. Both squads finished with 14 shots apiece, with UCF putting eight on goal to SDSU’s six. Each team had three assists apiece. Central Florida held an edge in corner kicks, 3-2, and San Diego State logged four saves to the Knights’ two, both of which were in the first overtime session.

 

The Aztecs, who sit at 3-1-1, own their best five-game record since 2002 when that team was 4-1 after five outings.

 

Nationally ranked SDSU will put its three-match unbeaten streak on the line Sunday afternoon when Alabama visits Montezuma Mesa. The non-conference game, which is free, is set for a 1 p.m. PT start.