Seniors Caitlin Gamble and Nicole Garbin made the most of their final Civil War game Friday, scoring both of Oregon’s goals against Oregon State in Corvallis. However, the Beavers’ offense was too much to handle for the Ducks, who fell 4-2, marking their fifth-straight loss (8-6-1 overall, 0-5-0 conference).
On Wednesday, senior defender Katie Abrahamson said she expected the game with Oregon State (9-5-1, 2-2-1) to be physical and laden with fouls. The game Friday did not disappoint. There were 40 fouls called and nine yellow cards issued, but no players were ejected from the game.
The Beavers got on the scoreboard first in the 29th minute when several Oregon defenders failed to clear a loose ball from their goal box. Capitalizing on the Ducks’ mistake was Jodie Taylor, who found herself with the ball in a one-on-one situation with Oregon’s goalkeeper Jessie Chatfield. Taylor’s shot found the net, giving the Beavers their first lead of the game and ending a 318-minute scoreless drought for the sophomore forward.
The Ducks struck back in the 40th minute when Gamble beat Oregon State goalkeeper Melissa Onstad with a close-range shot. Gamble’s teammates Tiffany Smith and Sabrina DeMonte were both credited with assists. For Gamble, a senior midfielder from Salt Lake City, it was her fourth goal of the season and gave the Ducks new hope, tying the game at 1-1.
“It felt good to tie things up,” Gamble said. “The goals that we had were awesome. Obviously goals are what matters most and they had more than us, I think we could have scored more.”
The joy on Oregon’s bench in light of the tie was short-lived as Whitney Goodell of Oregon State defied an off-side trap by the Oregon defenders and drove home a shot past Chatfield 71 seconds after Gamble’s equalizer. It was a controversial play and was met with criticism from Oregon head coach Tara Erickson, who felt that Goodell was offside when she received teammate Alison Vislay’s pass setting up the goal. Erickson and the rest of Oregon’s coaching staff pleaded their case to the game officials, but the arguments fell on deaf ears.
“Calls aren’t always going to go your way, but that’s just part of the game,” Erickson said. “There were many other things we needed to do today and we didn’t do a lot of things right. We weren’t playing well on defense, we weren’t aggressive enough, but we did adjust pretty well in the second half.”
By the time the buzz in the bleachers died down after Goodell’s goal, she scored another in the final minute of the first half. Goodell’s teammate Jen Crump took a shot at Chatfield that was deflected by a screening Oregon defender right to Goodell, who scored her second goal of the game from seven yards out at 44:03.
With a 3-1 deficit looming in front of them heading into the second half, Erickson’s squad dug in their heels on defense and received much-needed help on offense from Garbin, their standout forward. The senior from Wailuku, Hawaii, cut the Beavers’ lead to one with her ninth goal of the season. Gamble fed her with a cross that Garbin buried in Oregon State’s net just five minutes into the half.
“We had the whole defense shifted and Caitlin sent in a nice ball,” Garbin said. “The center-back was out of position and I was wide-open for a shot.”
From there the Beavers did not surrender another goal, but scored another of their own in the 79th minute when Taylor sent a 30-yard free-kick past Chatfield. Taylor, a Wallasey, England native finished with two goals to help lead Oregon State to its first win in four games. The Beavers have now won four of the last five Civil War meetings.
Garbin was happy with the two goals Oregon scored, but never thought they’d give up four to their rivals from Corvallis.
“I definitely didn’t think we’d give up four,” Garbin said. “A couple of those goals could have gone the other way. We went all-out, though. We tried our best and left it all out on the field.”
Erickson expects to have her seniors Cristan Higa and Andrea Valadez in her starting lineup again Friday. The two returned to action against the Beavers following three-game absences due to injury. The Ducks return home to Pape Field to face the Bay Area schools of the Pacific-10 Conference Nov. 4 and 6, but first play Washington and Washington State on the road this weekend as their search for their first conference win continues.

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