#18 Gophers Defeat Illini in Minnesota Big Ten Home Opener
There were 954 fans on hand at MYSA day at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium today to watch the University of Minnesota women’s soccer team defeat Illinois by a score of 1-0. In doing so the #18 nationally ranked Gophers, who are now 1-0-1 in conference play and 9-1-2 overall, move to an early lead in the Big Ten Standings.
Katie Bethke scored the lone goal of the game in the 70th minute. MacKenzie Misel broke her mark on the left flank, dribbled to the end line and put in a perfect cross to Bethke who beat her defender to the box with a square run from the right flank. Bethke headed the winner into the upper left hand corner from 10 yards out. The goal brings Bethke’s goals to 2 for the year and her point total to 9.
“You really have to buy into making that run and trusting that your teammate is going to get it to you,” said goal scorer Bethke. “She’s only a freshman (Misel) but she’s a great player and I knew she could make the cross and it was a great service. We practice the kind of run I made today all the time in practice. I think it’s the repetition over the years that makes that happen.”
Head coach Mikki Denney Wright stated that the draw on Thursday evening with Iowa and the win today are both the kind of grind-it-out results that are often important in the Big Ten. “This is the way it is in the Big Ten,” said Wright after the game. “Everybody is going to beat up on everybody. Our kids were really disappointed with the draw on Thursday night. It wasn’t a pretty game with the wind and torrential downpours. You just have to keep playing and I knew the team would respond after that and they did today.”
The Gophers withstood added pressure from the Illini in the dying minutes of the game as they reorganized and put 6 forwards into the match in an attempt to equalize. Senior defender Kylie Kallman tracked down an Illini player from behind and broke up a play after Illinois broke though on what looked to be a one-on-one with goalkeeper Cat Parkhill with just 3 minutes remaining. A few minutes earlier Junior Tamara Strahota did the same on an Illinois breakaway. Parkhill and the Minnesota defense withstood the pressure and when Minnesota gained control of the ball they did an excellent job of time management. Slowing the game down, Minnesota killed off the dying minutes of the match with runs to the corner of the field.
“We work a lot at that because we know these kind of Big Ten games are like that,” said Mikki Denney Wright. “This is how they all are. I often feel like it’s a heart attack after heart attack for a coach. You just have to be able to kill a game in this league. We had played two games this week and they were fresh so we had to just kill the game and our girls did a great job of that.
The Gophers’ unbeaten streak is now at 11 games which is the second longest in school history behind a 1997 record of 15 when Minnesota won the Big Ten championship.
Minnesota’s next game is this Thursday evening, September 30th, at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium as the Gophers take on the Wisconsin Badgers at 7:00 p.m.
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