U of M Women Earn a Win and a Draw in Minnesota Spring Classic
University of Minnesota 04/18/2009
The Minnesota soccer team put the finishing touches on a challenging spring season on Saturday as the Gophers played Nebraska to a 1-1 draw before defeating Drake, 3-0, in the annual Minnesota Spring Classic Saturday at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium.
In other games, North Dakota State outlasted Drake for a 1-0 victory and Nebraska knocked off NDSU 2-0. All matches were shortened to 70 minutes, instead of the usual 90.
The Gophers and Huskers kicked things off in the first action of the event with an exciting match that saw plenty of attacking and high pressure defense from both sides.
The Minnesota offense was clicking early as the Gophers outshot the Huskers 7-3 in the first half, forcing Husker goalkeeper Tara Macdonald to make four saves.
A clear scoring chance for the Gophers developed in the 29th minute when freshman forward Tam Strahota, who saw limited action on the day because she was returning from an injury that had kept her out of the lineup for the last month, broke free from about 40 yards from the Husker goal and was in on a breakaway. Macdonald charged out and Strahota’s shot went wide.
Early in the second half, Minnesota’s pressure finally paid dividends. Sophomores Molly Rouse and Julie Rezac caused a turnover deep on the left flank. Rezac then beat a Husker defender on the endline, engaged Macdonald, and slipped a pass to a wide open Strahota in front of the goal. Strahota calmly placed the ball into the back of the net for the 1-0 Gopher lead with 29 minutes to play.
Both offenses were quiet for the next 20 minutes before Nebraska’s Colleen Goetzmann just missed an opportunity to draw the Huskers level. Goetzmann found herself in the Minnesota penalty area with about eight minutes to play and was able to get on the end of a service from the right flank. Minnesota’s redshirt freshman goalkeeper Cat Parkhill charged out and the ball was deflected by Parkhill and the Gopher defense within six yards of the goal before being cleared from danger.
Nebraska, however, continued to turn up the pressure in the final four minutes of the game and earned three corner kicks for its efforts. With 15 seconds remaining in the game, Nebraska’s Lauren Isenhower found Michaela Fulmer along the Gopher back line, and this time the Huskers were able to slip the ball past Parkhill for the equalizer. The goal was the only one conceded this spring by the redshirt freshman from Apple Valley, who recorded four saves in the game.
The match ended in a 1-1 tie, but the teams went into a PK shootout to practice for postseason play in the fall. Nebraska edged Minnesota 5-4 in the shootout.
For the game, Minnesota outshot Nebraska, 9-7. Both teams took five corner kicks.
Minnesota turned its attention to the Drake for its afternoon match. And the Gophers didn’t waste any time jumping on the Missouri Valley Conference’s third-place team from last fall.
Just 15 seconds into the match, the Maroon and Gold found the back of the net. Rouse served a ball in from the left flank and freshman Shari Eckstrom battled to knock the ball down. Strahota was alert and pounced on the chance created by her teammates to blast a shot past the Bulldog goalkeeper from seven yards out for an early 1-0 Minnesota lead.
The Minnesota attack struck again with 18 minutes remaining in the half. An Eckstrom corner kick was partially cleared by the Drake defense. Sophomore defender Jennie Clark was the first to corral the clearance attempt and found Rezac faced up and ready to shoot from 30 yards out. Rezac did just that and went high over everyone including the Drake goalkeeper to make it 2-0 in favor of the Gophers.
Minnesota struck again early in the second half, when Rezac found herself in the mix again and slipped a pass to fellow sophomore Katie Bethke just inside the penalty area. Bethke’s blast was impressive, and it found the lower left corner of the goal to make it 3-0 for the home-standing Gophers.
The strike would stand up as the final score of the match that was dominated by the Gophers. Minnesota outshot the Bulldogs 10-1 for the game and out-cornered Drake 7-0.
Freshmen goalkeepers Katie Roberts and Parkhill combined for the shutout, each playing a half. Rezac, a sophomore from Eden Prairie, had a hand in three of the four Minnesota goals on the day, registering a goal and two assists.
Minnesota finishes the spring season with a 2-2-2 record, defeating Iowa State and Drake, drawing with USC and Nebraska, and falling to Loyola Marymount and Missouri.
The Gophers outscored their opponents by a combined 8-4 margin over the six matches.
The team now has time to focus on final exams before breaking for the summer. The Maroon and Gold will return to game action at the University of Georgia to open the fall season on August 28th.
Minnesota Spring Classic
Scoring Summary
Nebraska at Minnesota
UM – 41:22 Strahota from Rezac
NU – 69:45 Fulmer from Isenhower
Drake at Minnesota
UM – 0:15 Strahota from Eckstrom and Rouse
UM – 17:05 Rezac from Clark
UM – 39:20 Bethke from Rezac
Comments are closed.
was looking at the scoreline for the Drake game… now… I know this is the state of hockey, but in soccer we only give ONE assist…
Ah, not true. In collegiate and high school soccer, it’s not at all unusual to have two assists. This was taken from the gophersports.com and just to make sure I went back and checked box scores from last fall and there are lots of double assists.
From the NCAA Soccer 2008 and 2009 Rules and Interpretation booklet
“10.5.1 If a scoring play consists of two consecutive passes without a defender
gaining control of the ball, two assists may be awarded, provided the second
player does not have to elude a defender to make the final pass. Both passes
must have a direct influence on the outcome of a goal scored. If the second
player needs to elude a defender before passing to the goal-scorer, credit only
that assist.”
I stand corrected… that is ridiculous though. I’m continually amazed how organizations like the the NCAA and high school federation constantly feel the need to be “different.” When someone explains to me why FIFA soccer isn’t good enough for high school and college I’ll get off the soap box. (the exception being substitutions, that makes sense having variations depending on the age/level)
The substitution rules are even more confusing than that. Different rules for high school, college, depending on the level of college as well as different rules for different leagues. Did you know that the USL-1 can use up to 5 subs? US Open Cup competition can use (I believe) 4 subs. The new Development Academy use FIFA youth rules which is 7 subs but they can only enter the game once.
My friend Neal who sometimes comments on this blog and is a collegiate level ref, has often spoken of how confusing it is to be a ref and to have all these different rules that he needs to know and how adaptable you need to be to ref different leagues and levels.
“Just 15 seconds into the match, the Maroon and Gold found the back of the net. Rouse served a ball in from the left flank and freshman Shari Eckstrom battled to knock the ball down. Strahota was alert and pounced on the chance created by her teammates to blast a shot past the Bulldog goalkeeper from seven yards out for an early 1-0 Minnesota lead.”
Based on Sam’s post and the interpretation of the goal, sounds more like a scrum… or as some would say a garbage goal. Not exactly fitting with rule 10.5.1 for two assists. I digress, my original post was already debunked