Golden Gophers Win 4th Game of the Season Over UC-Santa Barbara in MN Gold Classic Tourney
The University of Minnesota defeated UC-Santa Barbara on Friday night by a score of 2-0 in the second game of the Gold Classic tournament. The win brings the Gophers to a 4-1-0 on the season. The Gophers play again today at 1:00 in their second game of the tournament as they take on the University of San Diego at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium.
University of San Diego v Marquette
The University of San Diego edged Marquette in the first game of the tournament Friday night by a score of 1-0. The Toreros held off a whopping 29 shots from the Golden Eagles while only mustering 7 of their own. But that 7th shot was the game winner for San Diego when in the 9th minute of overtime Brittany Held scored her 2nd of the season to keep San Diego unbeaten at 4-0-0. Marquette threw everything but the kitchen sink at goalkeeper Courtney Parsons, who made 12 saves to record the shutout. The Golden Eagles were a bit unlucky as they hit the cross bar and uprights numerous times throughout the match.
Uof M v UC-Santa Barbara
The Golden Gophers women’s soccer team played their first home game of the season Friday night at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium. The kickoff to the season was met with appropriately fall-ish weather with unseasonably cool temperatures and windy conditions.
The Gophers dominated the first half of play with 13 shots to the Gaucho’s 5 but were unable to light up the score board. The second half saw Santa Barbara do a better job of competing in the midfield. The better play by the California side resulted in Minnesota not getting as many shots on goal in the second half but that didn’t stop the Gophers from scoring.
Allie Phillips, who led the Gophers with 5 shots on goal for the night, put Minnesota ahead for good just a minute and half into the second half. Phillips scored her 3rd goal of the young season with an assist by Steph Brandt. From a tight angle, Phillips launched a shot over Gaucho goalkeeper Makenna Henry to bulge the far post netting.
With the game winding down and Minnesota seeming to have locked out the Santa Barbara offense, redshirted freshman Steph Brandt received a ball from Angie Olson 20 yards from goal. She took a good first touch to her right, raced to the ball and launched a driven shot to the upper right corner of the goal giving Minnesota a 2-0 lead in the 87th minute.
“I touched the ball to space and knew I could put in a little more speed to get to it,” said Brandt. “I think the keeper thought I was going left and I saw her cheating a bit. We have to come out and win these games to hopefully get a NCAA bid this year. Scoring that goal at the end was just a little insurance.”
The main story of the night however was news that senior center defender Jenny Clark, who had recently been named to the Hermann Trophy watch list, had broken her collar bone in the Belmont game on Tuesday. “She was knocked down from behind when we already had a 5-0 lead,” said the Gopher head coach. “It was really unfortunate. The collar bone broke in two places. We are hoping to see her back on the field by the end of the season but we just don’t know yet.”
In 2008, Clark earned SoccerBuzz Fourth Team All-America, First Team All-Big Ten and First-Team All-Great Lakes Region accolades. She found similar success last year, earning her second First Team All-Big Ten honor along with NSCAA First Team All-Region honors as the Gophers defense again ranked among the top of the Big Ten.
Taking her place on the back line and doing a very capable job on Friday evening was junior forward Tamara Strahota. “I’m really proud of our team,” said Mikki Denney Wright. “We had some adversity this week…and came back (from a three-game road trip) and had one day of training for a really good UCSB team. I was really proud of how our team stepped up and how Tam Strahota stepped into that spot. She had one day to learn the center back position — she’s never played — and I thought she did outstanding.”
The Gophers head coach went on to say that Strahota has all the qualities of a good defender, listing 1 v 1 defending, doing a good job at winning balls, being physically tough and strong in the air with her head.
Strahota said she has never played defense before this week but felt her speed and teammates helped her with only one day of practice in the position: “I’m fast so I have speed that can help me back there but I am a good ball winner and coach tells me I’m a good 1 v 1 defender. It was a little frustrating not always knowing what to do. I only had a day to train but my teammates really helped me out tonight. I was a little nervous stepping on the field in that position tonight but you just have to be confident in everything you do in order to help your teammates out.”
TODAY: Minnesota Gold Classic — Marquette and Santa Barbara will both try to earn a win today when they play at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium on the St. Paul Campus of the U of M at 10:00 a.m. in their second game.
Minnesota takes on the University of San Diego at 1:00 p.m.
To watch video interviews with Mikki Denney Wright, Steph Brandt and Tamara Strahota click “read more”
Comments are closed.