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St. Cloud State University
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Soccer team hit hard
By Drew Sandholm
Published:
Monday, October 13, 2003
By looking at the scores alone, "disappointing" might very well be the only possible adjective to describe the SCSU soccer team's weekend road trip.
The Huskies lost to the University of South Dakota in a disappointing 5-1 decision Saturday in Vermillion and didn't fair much better in a 6-1 loss to the University on Nebraska-Omaha yesterday.
Saturday's rout of bad luck produced the Coyotes' first NCC win of the season and an improved record of 6-8 overall.
A strong Coyote offense lead USD in the stomping. Second-year Coyote Beth Schuster's performance was nothing short of amazing. The crafty midfielder provided USD with two goals 34 seconds in the 33rd minute of the game.
Schuster's first goal came at the 32:09 mark thanks to an assist from first-year Tina Brummer, giving the Coyotes a 2-1 lead. Schuster then added her second goal of the game and fifth of the season from 40 yards away at 32:43 from an assist by first-year midfielder Lena Legband. The Huskies adversities, thanks to Schuster, had only grew.
"We had the worst luck in the world that game," said senior defender Dana Parus. "It was like everything that could have went wrong, did go wrong. The goals weren't even that good, it was just that we had made stupid mistakes."
USD senior forward Ali Magel scored her first goal of the season off an assist by Brummer. Magel managed to put the USD on the board first with a 1-0 lead.
Battling up and down the pitch, the Huskies had trouble keeping the ball on the Coyotes' side of the field and SCSU's sense of urgency took over.
"Obviously we knew we had to answer pretty quickly," said third-year midfielder Heidi Westrum. "Sometimes our team has trouble answering goals, so we were hoping to answer quickly."
The Huskies grouped and did just that, responding at the 24:35 mark. Westrum helped the Huskies get back into the game scoring off a solo run.
With things tied at 1-1, the game had the potential to go either way, although the Coyote defense continued to play strong and allowed SCSU limited shots on goal.
By using open space and playing the field, the Coyotes' passing game helped them to maneuver around SCSU. Schuster paced her team to eventually put the game away for USD. She racked up her two goals and took her team into halftime with a 3-1 lead over SCSU.
In the second half, things just didn't get better for SCSU. The Coyotes managed to gain control of the ball and charge down field with speed. Wanting to prove they owned the field, USD's offense took advantage of their lead and turned on the pressure.
Brummer scored her first goal of the season at the 50:34 mark. Unassisted, her goal left the game at 4-1 in USD's favor. Despite the situation, SCSU didn't fret. They relentlessly tried for a comeback, but could nonetheless manage to only manage one shot on goal in the second half. Westrum says that despite the outcome of the game, the score didn't reflect the play.
"We were all over. The ball was up and down both sides of the field," Westrum said. "They were just a very good team that they took advantage of that and went with it. They not only gained control during the game, they capitalized on it."
Second-year Jessica Schnell helped the Coyotes seal the envelope in the 66:51 mark assisted by second-year Brandi Fields; her goal closed out the scoring for USD.
The Coyotes managed to keep SCSU to just six shots on goal (five of those in the first half of the game), which made things easy for second-year Coyote goalie Candice Martinez. She had only two saves in the win. Brendel was kept much busier, with a total of eight saves for the Huskies.
Things didn't get better yesterday as the Huskies hoped for improved play against the University of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks.
UNO turned up the heat at the 9:13 mark with fourth-year Stephanie Kirby scoring off an assist from third-year Molly Herzberg. Again, Westrum was the first to respond, taking a midfield pass from first-year stopper Savannah Swanson. Westrum scored her fifth goal of the season to tie the game at 1-1.
"If we can look at one positive thing from this game, it'd be that we scored on them," Parus said. "We haven't scored on them in a while, so it was good not to have given them a shutout."
Despite that accomplishment, the Mavericks didn't let it deter their game. They went on to score three more times in the first half and outshot SCSU 12-5.
Third-year Ashley Grace managed the game-winning point when Brendel rejected her first shot on goal, but then knocked it in from 15 yards out. Kirby then added her second goal of the game (ninth of the season).
With less than two minutes remaining, her point was followed by Herzberg's fourth goal of the season.
Into the second half, third-year Brytten Kraft went unassisted to score another point for UNO. First-year Whitney Frantzen then scored her first goal of the year, helping the No. 12 Mavericks seal the win.
Despite the loss, the team seemingly feels the game's outcome adequate.
"Overall, we really played well. The score just doesn't reflect it," Brendel said. "We played extremely well, it's just when we made mistakes, they just capitalized on them."
The Mavericks defense smothered any chances for shots on goal, holding them to just six. UNO has only given up six goals in the last three games.
This weekend's losses drop SCSU to a record of 6-6-2 overall and 1-2-1 for the NCC. They return to action Friday at 4 p.m., hosting UND (12-1, 3-1 NCC) at Whitney Field.
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