Contact: Bryce Hayes (830) 372-6877
For Immediate Release
SEGUIN, Texas — With time running down in a tie game, Texas Lutheran scored the game-winner on an 88th-minute goal from Natalia Cortez (Edinburg/Robert Vela) to claim a 2-1 victory over Mary Hardin-Baylor in Tuesday’s season-opening contest at Gustafson Field.
The win over the Crusaders is their first since 2012 and the first multi-goal contest against UMHB since 2011, also a 2-1 victory at Gustafson Field. With the win, TLU takes a 14-13-3 lead in the all-time series against UMHB. Texas Lutheran is 3-1-1 in season opener’s under head coach Kerwin Johnson.
The Bulldogs (1-0) dominated the run of play in the first half, taking a 1-0 lead on the first collegiate goal from freshman Naiema Almaraz(Danbury/Angleton) on a cross from Emma Alvarado (Austin/Johnson), who made her return to the Bulldogs starting lineup after missing all of the 2025 season due to injury. The assist is the first of her career. TLU held a narrow 3-2 shot advantage in the first half while maintaining possession for over 60% of the first half.
UMHB (0-1) came out strong to start the second half, pouring on shots before making the Bulldogs pay on a defensive miscue in the 78th minute, tying the score at 1-1.
As time dwindled, the match seemed headed to the same 1-1 result as last season before the Bulldogs found a way as Natalia Cortez buried her first goal of the season and fourth career game-winner in the 88th minute.
The Crusaders outshot the Bulldogs 10-8 and had a 5-3 advantage in shots on goal in the contest.
Alysa Marquez (Miami, FL/Dr. Michael Krop) made four saves in her first outing of the season.
The Bulldogs are back in action on Thursday, Sept. 3 as they travel to Kerrville to face Schreiner at 6 PM. The match will be streamed on FloCollege. All streaming and live stats links will be available on tlubulldogs.com.
For all updates on Texas Lutheran Women’s Soccer, follow @tluwsoc on X (Twitter) and Instagram and as always you can find updates on all Texas Lutheran athletics on tlubulldogs.com and all official TLU social media channels (@tluathletics on X (Twitter), @tlu_athletics on Instagram, and @tlubulldogson Facebook).