Facing a 2-0 deficit with 3 1/2 minutes left to play Sunday, Kansas University’s soccer team didn’t have time to be kicking the ball backward toward its own goal.

“Play it forward,” KU coach Mark Francis shouted to defender Maggie Mason, who had just passed the ball behind her so that goalie Meghan Miller could punt it down field.

Less than 30 seconds later the backward ball paid off. Sophomore Lauren Williams received the long boot from Miller and lofted a shot that slipped between Oklahoma goalie Catherine Wade’s hands to KU defender Stacy Leeper two feet in front of the goal line.

Leeper easily scored and started a late Jayhawk rally that nearly ended with her providing even more heroics. However, a strong strike by the sophomore with 13 seconds left which would have tied the game sailed inches wide of the Sooners’ goalpost and Oklahoma held on to hand Kansas its first home loss of the season, 2-1, and snap its nine-game unbeaten streak at SuperTarget Field.

“I told people, ‘I’m here if you need it,'” Leeper said of her rebound shot off a direct kick after an OU player touched the ball with her hands with 30 seconds remaining. “It happened to come back. I got a good strike, but it just went wide.”

Unfortunately for Kansas, which fell to 9-3-2 overall and 3-2-1 in the Big 12, the game might not have been the Jayhawks’ biggest loss Sunday.

Freshman Caroline Smith, the Big 12’s leading scorer who set a KU single-season scoring record Friday with her 11th goal this year, left the game late after injuring her right knee.

With nine minutes to go, Wade dove onto a ball that Smith was hustling for in front of the Sooners’ goal. Wade made the stop, but her save took out Smith who twisted underneath her. Smith struggled in pain on the field for several minutes, but was able to walk to the sideline.

“We’ll have to wait and see,” Francis said of the extent of the damage to Smith’s knee.

While the injury was the most deflating moment for Smith on Sunday, the Edina, Minn., native also misfired on three one-on-one scoring chances against Wade.

Kansas' Caroline Smith, right, and Oklahoma's Erin Young, collide in the first half of their game. The Sooners knocked off the Jayhawks, 2-1, Sunday at SuperTarget Field. Smith later left the game after colliding with OU goalkeeper Catherine Wade.

With Oklahoma leading 1-0 halfway through the first half, Smith needed just to fling a shot over a group of defenders in front of a wide-open net. Instead, her flick flew too far right.

Four minutes into the second half, Smith drove to the right of the OU goal and smashed a shot back to the left that again fell outside the far post.

Smith’s final miss, a diving stop by Wade on a crossing shot, came after Oklahoma’s Becky Nelson again hooked up with teammate Krissy Dawson for the pair’s second score.

Nelson, who scored the Sooners’ first goal off an assist by Dawson when she hung a header over the head of Miller in the first half, again took another perfectly-placed pass from Dawson and aired a shot over Miller, who had moved out of goal to stop Nelson in the 53rd minute.

Kansas freshman Jessica Smith, left, battles Oklahoma's Brittany Davis for the ball during the first half of Sunday's game at SuperTarget Field. The Sooners beat the Jayhawks, 2-1.

“It was just mistakes that I made, that normally I won’t make,” Miller said. “But they just punished us for our mistakes.”

The game became punishing for players on both teams in the second half when it turned more physical. At one point, the referee had to separate two players that were shoving one another after battling for a loose ball.

Despite the deficit, the Jayhawks continued to pressure the Sooners relentlessly even before the final minutes and just barely missed on what was their best scoring opportunity before Leeper’s goal. Senior Lindsay Hunting rocketed a blast from 35-yards out that wound to the upper left corner of the Sooners’ goal but sailed just over the top of the crossbar.

“We wanted that second goal so bad,” said Miller, who watched KU rally to beat Oklahoma with a pair of goals in the final five minutes of last year’s conference opener at SuperTarget Field. “We didn’t get it, but we left everything out on the field.”