As West Virginia midfielder Bri Rodriguez prepared for her team’s Big 12 Conference debut against Texas Tech last Friday, she glanced down at the inspirational messages written on the white tape she straps around her left forearm.

The initials of her family members scrawled in black ink were joined by a message tailored to the occasion from teammate Mallory Smith: “It’s our first Big 12 game. Got to get this win. Got to make our mark. Show them what we’re about.”

Junior Frances Silva’s late penalty kick handed the battling Mountaineers a 3-2 win that looked unlikely moments earlier when the Red Raiders wiped out a two-goal deficit. Tom Stone’s team had stretched WVU’s narrow three-man midfield with its dominance of the flanks and fatigue was becoming a major factor in the game’s turnaround. Yet West Virginia showed its mettle by eking out the victory in its first conference game since departing the Big East as back-to-back champions.

“We’re exhausted, but we’re feeling good about it,” Rodriguez told TopDrawerSoccer.com shortly after Friday’s final whistle. “We didn’t play that great in the second half, we didn’t have great possession and we knew it. We just tried to work as hard as we could.”

Rodriguez created Silva’s game-winning opportunity on 79 minutes when she seized upon a weak goal kick from Texas Tech’s substitute goalkeeper Alexis Braziel and slipped a pass inside left-back Jaelene Hinkle into Silva’s path. Contact between the two players sent Silva sprawling to the ground and referee Gregg Day pointing to the penalty spot. Silva authoritatively walloped her kick inside Braziel’s right post, far beyond her reach.

It was a rare moment when Rodriguez was able to connect with her outside forwards. Silva and left-winger Kelsie Maloney spent much of the evening penned behind the ball as Red Raiders’ top scorer Janine Beckie threatened down the right side and the adventurous Hinkle pushed forward up the left.

Silva struck first on 33 minutes when she was given room to advance unopposed from the halfway line toward Texas Tech’s penalty area. The Overland Park, Kan. native struck a low 25-yard shot that starting goalkeeper Victoria Esson palmed into her bottom corner. Smith doubled the advantage three minutes before half-time, climbing highest to nod home Bry McCarthy’s inswinging corner from six yards.

West Virginia’s defensive exertions began to tell shortly after the break. Center-back Morgan Johnson thumped the visitors back within one on 51 minutes from Hayley Haagsma’s cutback after WVU failed to clear a corner kick. Sarah Ellison volleyed wide from 12 yards two minutes later when she should have tied the game, but the equalizer finally arrived on 73 minutes when Paige Strahan skelped a 25-yard shot that swerved away from WVU goalkeeper Sara Keane before nestling in the top corner.

“There comes a point in the game when you hit a wall,” Silva told TopDrawerSoccer.com after Friday’s game. “Maybe at the beginning of the season we would have hit that wall and been done. We wouldn’t have been able to keep going.

“This time we may have hit a wall, but we went through it,” Silva said. “It’s a big step for our team.”

West Virginia took another forward step Sunday when it beat No. 7-ranked Oklahoma State 1-0 courtesy of another late Silva strike – her seventh goal in four games. Fatigue from Friday night was evident on both sides and the game was drifting toward a stalemate when Silva gathered the ball on a 2-vs-2 break with less than two minutes remaining. She cut inside her immediate opponent onto her left foot, used the supporting Maloney as a decoy, and fired an unstoppable shot into United States U-23 goalkeeper Adrianna Franch’s top right corner.

“Franch in goal is unbelievable,” said West Virginia Head Coach Nikki Izzo-Brown after Sunday’s win. “For us to find the back of the net on a day like today when she was playing out of her mind was great.”

Two opening wins carried the Mountaineers to the top of the Big 12 standings and to a 6-3-3 record overall. That position will be severely tested in the next two weeks with trips to TCU, Kansas and Iowa State.

“I think we’ve come in and made a big statement,” said Silva following Sunday’s game. “We just need to keep it up against TCU and other teams going forward.”

Ian Thomson is a freelance soccer reporter and founder of The Soccer Observer Web site. Follow him on Twitter at @SoccerObserver.

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