RECAP: SOUTHSTAR FC CONTINUES STRONG SEASON START, DEFEATS OKLAHOMA CITY FC 4-1

Written By:  Thomas Costello  | WPSL Correspondent

Wednesday night in Ft. Worth, Texas, SouthStar FC welcomed Oklahoma City FC to Sunset Soccer Stadium for a midweek match-up. On the surface, it was just a regular season match but at the final whistle, with SouthStar celebrating a 4-1 victory, this third SouthStar win in four matches showed that the 2023 side isn’t like any team the organization has seen in its four seasons as it matched its win total from the last two seasons combined.

Even with the final result ending in five goals, the first half was a stalemate between the two sides with differing strategies not finding a way to get on the scoreboard.
 

For Oklahoma City FC, a young side with an average age of 18, it was finding players down the field with big, booming passes. It was almost successful if not for SouthStar’s Hali Hartman – an LSU transfer center back.

In the fourth minute, a long throw by OKC landed dangerously inside the 18-yard box. After bouncing around, it landed on the feet of the attacking team and created an open shot on the keeper. Running in was Hartman to break up the play to keep the match level early.
 

That play continued throughout the first half. Hartman was there any time OKC found an attack, which mostly through forward Bailey Wesco, Hartman’s former teammate at the University of Oklahoma.

On the SouthStar FC side of the ball, the home side played a more methodical game while holding good possession and shorter passes to move forward. Head coach Aaron McGough’s side had its chances, but even with four shots on goal, attempts didn’t come with a high chance of success with strong defense from the young OKC side.
 

The biggest stop for OKC came with only two minutes remaining in the first half. University of Arkansas midfielder Keller Matise received a pass and made a move into the right side of the box, with only the keeper to beat. Matise sent in a shot, but a kick save by goalkeeper Sophie Augustin kept the score 0-0 entering the halftime locker room. 
 

“It was difficult to break through into the final third and produce quality chances,” McGough said. “At half, I asked the girls to play with more urgency and to increase the tempo.”
 

SouthStar showed it was a team that can be coached because the second half was a completely different story.
 

In the 59th minute, the slow and methodical SouthStar possession of the first half was gone following a corner by Oklahoma City FC. In a crowded 18-yard box, SouthStar sent a booming pass out of its defensive zone, but it wasn’t a clearance. It found the home side’s midfield before getting the ball down to Texas A&M forward Makhiya McDonald.
 

When McDonald received the ball, the initial response was the OKC defense forcing a throw, but SouthStar quickly got the ball back in play. After a quick move with the ball from McDonald’s left to right foot, she found space with Oklahoma City still moving back on defense and got the ball to teammate, and incoming college freshman, Mia Bernard.
 

Bernard took the ball and made the most of an opportunity to go at goal from five yards outside of the center of the 18-yard box. The midfielder launched a shot into the top left corner of the net, past the outstretched hands of the OKC keeper, putting SouthStar up 1-0.
 

“Those are moments in a game that we talk about,” James Hampton, Oklahoma City FC head coach, said. “Now we’re down 1-0 60 minutes in and you’re chasing the game. We ended up chasing it a bit.”
 

With that chasing came more space for SouthStar to attack, but Oklahoma City stayed strong defensively for the next 20 minutes before giving up a penalty kick to the home side.
 

On another McDonald-led SouthStar attack, the forward sent an in-swinging pass into the box in the 78^th minute, hitting the arm of an Oklahoma City defender. With the referee’s whistle blow for a penalty, McDonald took the ball herself and calmly knocked in a shot to the bottom right corner of the net to double SouthStar’s lead, but it didn’t last for long.
 

Immediately off the kickoff, the young visiting side showed a promising future experienced play that caught SouthStar off guard.
 

Directly off the restart, Oklahoma City dribbled for three yards and sent in a pass up to a sprinting Wesco. The SouthStar defense and midfield were caught completely off guard, and Wesco sent in a confident tap-in past the charging goalkeeper to cut the lead in half with over 10 minutes left to find an equalizer.
 

“At the end of the game, we discussed not getting too comfortable with a lead because any moment can change the game,” McGough said regarding the quick lead-cutting OKC goal.
 

Ultimately, it didn’t hurt the home side in the end, SouthStar scored two more goals, the first off a short corner turned into a cross into the box that was headed in by former SEC All-Freshman midfielder Quinn Cornog. Emma Alvord added the final in the 90^th minute, taking an open shot from the right of the penalty box across the face of goal and past Oklahoma City to put the icing on the cake for SouthStar.
 

For Hampton, it was still a strong performance by an Oklahoma City team that featured two 15-year-old athletes playing in the match. While the OKC side does want to win and be competitive this season, and this side, is about one thing.
 

“We want to compete and get a result every game but we’re looking at the culture for these young girls,” Hampton said. “We keep them all involved and the culture is good, they’re playing college in 3-4 years. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
 

The home side showed OKC what that work turns into, as the more experienced SouthStar illustrated a coachable side that played well together for 90 minutes.
 

“We were able to out-possess them in the 2nd half, played with more tempo and urgency,” McGough said. “And ultimately connected better with final passes that created quality chances on goal.”
 

These two sides have one more match-up against each other on the final day of their WPSL seasons. With SouthStar then being the side taking the four-hour bus ride to Oklahoma City. It’ll give Hampton and OKC FC a chance to show SouthStar how much it’s grown through the season.
 

The win for SouthStar puts it in first place with second place DKSC BADTOP down a point with one more match played.