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St. Cloud State University
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Soccer wins in new home surroundings
By Drew Herron
Published:
Thursday, September 18, 2003
Media Credit: Adam Masloski
SCSU�s Heidi Westrum maneuvered past a Concordia-St. Paul player in the Huskies� 2-1 victory at Whitney Park.
The Huskies soccer team christened their temporary home away from home the right way Wednesday afternoon by downing Concordia-St. Paul 2-1 and getting back to the .500 mark.
Because of the construction at Halenback Field, the team will be forced to play all home games at Whitney Park this season, but the unfamiliarity of the new surroundings on game day didn't stop the Huskies, and neither could the Golden Bears.
"It feels a little funny that we're so far away from our actual home field, we have to get in a van and drive over there," sophomore goalkeeper Stephanie Brendel said. "It's almost like an away game at home."
A final score of 2-1 wasn't what one would call a true reflection of how the game went, but the end result being a "W" is all that really matters.
After falling behind early, SCSU freshman Trista Cooke evened the score at one at 22:12 with an assist to senior midfielder Jenny Ganser. Both teams battled back and forth in the first, ending up deadlocked at the half.
The Huskies came out hungrier than the Bears did in the second half. At 1:12, Ganser chased the ball down in the corner and booted it across the keeper box. A rebound off a failed header attempt by Cooke was swiftly scooped up and put away by junior forward Jennifer Gill, which proved to be the game winner.
"We were focused on finishing on our opportunities," Cooke said.
The Huskies proved to be a much quicker and more aggressive team than their counterparts, playing with a sense of urgency that seemed to wear down the Bears. Setting up countless scoring chances and aggressively attacking the loose ball, the Huskies applied solid offensive pressure while frustrating Bear defenders by using their speed to sneak past while avoiding off-sides.
For about a five-minute time frame toward the middle of the second half, the Huskies were banging away one solid scoring chance after another, but for a variety of reasons, the ball just didn't find the back of the net. The bluntest example of frustration during this offensive flurry came at 29:30 when Gill, making her bid for score number two, slipped past two defenders and beat an out-of-position keeper, only to have the shot miss left.
Where there's smoke, there's fire, and it seemed like it was only a matter of time before a bounce would go the Huskies' way. SCSU kept applying immense pressure, but Bears keeper Kara Gamboni came up with some clutch stops.
"We were getting frustrated because we weren't finishing on our chances," Cooke said. "We knew we needed to capitalize and we weren't doing it."
Ganser, Gill, junior forward Heidi Westrum, senior Jessica Woulke and freshman Anne Litecky all proved to be a handful for Bear defenders and things eventually got physical. Westrum and Litecky especially did not shy away from elevated play, and poured it on heavier. In several instances, the game had to be stopped because of an injured Concordia player, but no yellow cards were issued.
"We try to use physical play as much as possible just to throw off the other team and get them frustrated," Cooke said. "At the end of the game it seemed like they were backing down."
With about five minutes remaining in the second half, Concordia mounted their most dangerous offensive threat when a two-on-two emerged and Brendel was stuck in deep without much help, but the Bears forwards delayed the ball long enough for Brendel to cut down on the angle and for defensive help to arrive.
"I was thinking that there's no way me or my defense will let them score at this point. The whole game we had been fighting to add another goal, and since we couldn't, it was on us to keep it as a win," Brendel said. "Instead of being nervous, we just felt like, oh no, you're not getting this goal."
Brendel finished the match with five stops.
The Huskies are now 3-3-1 on the season and travel to Morris on Saturday to take Southwest State in a non-conference match.
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