Gopher Women’s Soccer Defeat Creighton to Move on in NCAA Tournament

Gophers defeat Creighton 4-2 with a season-high 31 shots to Bluejays 7

Molly Rouse jumps into one of her many attempts on the night. All photos taken by Jeremy Olson - www.digitalgopher.net

Katie Bethke scored 11 goals last season. But with Coach Mikki Denney Wright’s tactical change this year, the Eau Claire, Wis. midfielder only had 3 to her name coming into the NCAA first round game against the Creighton Bluejays. Coach Wright felt Bethke would be more useful to her teammates playing as a central midfielder and supporting her teammates, and Bethke’s done just fine in that role. In fact she stands 5th in the nation for assists with 13. But Friday evening at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium, Bethke nearly doubled her total goals for the year. She scored a pair of goals and not just any goals.  She scored the game-tying and the game-winning goals for her team to advance to the round of 32. Bethke leads the Gophers with a team-high 23 points this season.

“We’ve asked a number of our players the last few weeks to take more half chances from everywhere,” said Wright. “That’s what Molly (Rouse) and “Bone” (Katie Bethke) have continued to do. “Bone” had some opportunities that she wasn’t able to finish. But she kept taking them and taking them and Rouse kept getting into the box and trying to finish. It really speaks to their character.”

The Gophers started the game strong and within the first four minutes had already pressured Creighton into conceding 2 corner kicks. So it wasn’t surprising when senior midfielder Molly Rouse scored an assisted goal 9 minutes into the game. Rouse intercepted a ball at the top of the box. She dribbled past a defender on the right side and shot just inside the far left post to open the Gophers account.

Jenny Clark crashes the Bluejays net.

Minnesota continued to press but Creighton freshman Lauren Cingoranelli had been starting to threaten down the left side with speed and ball control. She tested the Gophers defense several times dribbling through the back line. In the 24th minute she  broke through Gopher defense again and struck a hard, high ball to the left corner of goal. Gopher goalkeeper Cat Parkhill parried the ball up. The Gopher keeper’s timing seemed a bit off and the ball went up and over her own head and dropped into the goal drawing the game even for the Bluejays at 1-1.

In the 40th minute Julie Rezac took the first of two Minnesota shots on the night that would carom off the crossbar. The Gophers may have felt unlucky but not as much as they did just 10 seconds later when the rebound from that shot was played off to Andrea Zuniga. She dribbled down the right side of the field for Creighton before unleashing a canon of a shot that went over Parkhill’s head and into the far left side of goal and put the Bluejays up over Minnesota 2-1 just before half.

The Gophers went into the locker room feeling a bit snake-bit having outshot Creighton 16-5. But only 4 of those shots forced saves from Bluejays goalkeeper Alicia Montgomery.

Dominating statistics with a scoreline that shows differently is something Minnesota has seen happen a number of times this year. But Rouse said she had belief in her team and knew they would pull out the win.

“When I went into the locker room I was completely confident in the team and not at all nervous,” said Rouse. “When we came out the second half I knew how the game would end up.”

Rouse and Bethke’s confidence showed as they dominated the midfield again. Minnesota gained several corners early in that second half. On the third corner, Bethke tied the game even 2-2 with her first of the night in the 54th minute. The corner was taken by Julie Rezac. The ball was played back out of the box by freshman Steph Brandt who found Bethke. She one-timed the ball past Montgomery and into the back of the net.

Julie Rezac tackles goal-scorer Katie Behtke after she tied the game with a 30-yard blast.

In the 70th minute Shari Eckstrom played a ball out to Bethke. She took a look and fired a thirty-yard blast low to the right post that found its way under the dive of Montgomery. The goal broke the deadlock and put Minnesota ahead 3-2.

“We were trying to test her [Montgomery] from all over the field,” said Bethke, who took 10 of the Gopher’s 31 shots on the night. “I don’t think she thought I was going to shoot from there to be honest.”

The Gophers put one more on the board for assurance just 5 minutes later. Brandt scored on a nice series of passes that ended with a feed from Rezac.

The Gophers cruised through their last 15 minutes to secure the 4-2 victory.

“[The Gophers] were probably the most dangerous team we saw this year,” Creighton coach Bruce Erickson said after the game. “They had a lot of chances. They were good; they were better.”

• Texas A&M defeated North Dakota State 1-1 in penalty shot shootouts 4-3 in the earlier game.

“Texas A&M is a really good team,” said Wright before the tournament started. “I’m familiar with them from coaching at Missouri. Coach G (G Guerrieri) has built a great program there. They’re now in their 16th straight NCAA tournament and they really know how to win down there. They have an incredible atmosphere surrounding their women’s soccer program. We’ve actually consulted with them about how they run their program because they have one of the top attendance in NCAA women’s soccer.

The #9 ranked Aggies will now face off against Minnesota in the round of 32 at 1:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium.

The ecstasy of victory and the agony of defeat. Angie Olson celebrates the Gophers fourth goal scored by Steph Brandt. All photos take by Jeremy Olson - www.digitalgopher.net