With the opening kick of Sunday’s game, Chardonnay Curran officially made history for the Ducks.
The fifth year senior has officially played in the most games by any player at Oregon, breaking the record previously held by five other Duck players. Curran is now the lone record holder at 81 games played for the Ducks.
She and the Ducks defeated the Portland State Vikings 1-0 on Sunday at Hillsboro Stadium, keeping their undefeated record alive. Oregon has started this season off in very impressive fashion, having one of the best records in recent history at 5-0-3. Portland State fell to 2-5-0.
For the third time this season, the Ducks went into halftime tied up at zero.
Oregon started the first half strong, but were missing the final pass to score the opener. Their attack resulted in five shots on goal and seven corner kicks, all of which they were unable to take advantage of.
The main chance of the first half was in the 33rd minute when forward Kess Elmore got her foot to a cross from Eden Hardy, but was unable to beat Vikings goalkeeper Sidney O’Billovich.
Defensively, the Ducks held strong throughout the first half, not allowing a single shot on frame. The Vikings managed to threaten Oregon’s defense once when Raniyah Burton slammed the ball off the outside of the goal post.
Oregon continued the second half with the same fire they had in the first. They almost found their breakthrough when Maya Hahn hit the crossbar off a fantastic shot several yards outside the 18-yard box.
The Ducks finally found their breakthrough in the 73rd minute. Their first goal came from a penalty kick scored by Zoe Hasenauer after O’Billovich took out Alexi Romero in the box.
Goalkeeper Leah Freeman was not tested much throughout the game, but she was needed to secure their victory; she collected a couple loose passes throughout the game, including a cross in the closing five minutes of the match.
The Ducks defended well in the closing minutes of the match, holding off numerous corner kicks and attacks from Portland State to secure the 1-0 victory.
The Ducks now move to 5-0-3 on the season and 1-0-2 on the road, meaning they enter conference play without a single loss.
They will head to California to start a tough three game road stretch, including tough matchups against No. 3 UCLA and then No. 10 Stanford.
