The Oregon women’s club soccer team pelted the opposing goal with shot after shot, yet still trailed the visiting Washington Huskies for much of the game.
Down 1-0 and desperately trying to tie the score, a goal from sophomore forward Emily Hay with less than 10 minutes left in the game allowed the Ducks to escape with a 1-1 tie Saturday at Lane Community College.
Oregon spent much of the game in the offensive zone, working the ball between the forwards and vigorously trying to capitalize on it numerous opportunities.
Failure to score only seemed to add to their determination, and this was no more evident than with sophomore midfielder Brianna Joseph, who had five shots in the game.
“I think that whenever you go down a goal you kind of get a fire inside, so pretty much you try to do anything to get even and get ahead,” Joseph said. “I just wanted to keep the energy up so my teammates could feed off of my energy and hopefully get a goal, which we did at the end.”
The game was not without a little bit of controversy, as a shot by sophomore midfielder Ashly Borrelli seemed to cross the goal line before a Huskies defender grabbed the ball with her hand. However, it was determined that the ball had not crossed the line, and instead the Ducks were awarded a penalty kick, which was stopped by the Washington goalie.
Late in the first half, a Washington forward ripped a shot from approximately 25 yards out. There was little the Ducks could do to prevent this goal as it sailed into the corner of the net and put the Huskies on the board first.
“The goal that they scored was a heck of a crack,” Ducks coach Dave Peterson said. “The only thing we can do against that is make sure we have a little more pressure on the ball, but frankly not even I was expecting that she was going to rip the shot as well as she hit it.”
The “Where did she come from?” moment of the game happened midway through the second half, as a solid strike by a Washington forward sent the ball soaring past the Oregon keeper. Junior defender Aja Petee was standing behind the keeper on the goal line and was able to cradle the ball with her chest and clear it to end the threat. This kept it a one-goal game.
Late in the game, the Ducks switched their formation from a 4-4-2 to a 3-4-3 and the decision quickly paid off.
A corner kick sent the ball into the 18-yard box, but with the Huskies unable to clear, Joseph gathered up the loose ball and passed it to Hay standing in front of the net. Hay was able to one-time the pass into the back of the net, tying the score at one all.
“Just being there at the right time was the key,” Hay said. “(Brianna) set it up perfectly. It was just right there and all I had to do was just finish it.”
While the Ducks were able to tie the score, players were frustrated with their inability to capitalize on their flurry of shots. Joseph admitted that a lack of focus when finishing shots led her to blast some above the goal instead of focusing on accuracy.
Peterson agreed with this sentiment, adding that they must find ways to score when creating as many opportunities as they did.
“It was disappointing,” he said. “We had tons of opportunities. We should have finished better. We created many chances; we just didn’t finish them off.”
While the final score was not the result the Ducks were hoping for, credit needs to be paid to the defense for slowing the Huskies’ attack. With plays like the one from Petee, Oregon was able to hold Washington’s lead to one, allowing the Ducks to eventually tie the game.
“It shows the girls can play with heart,” Peterson said. “The mental side of the game is sometimes as important as the technical side.”
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Late goal helps Oregon women’s club soccer tie Washington
Daily Emerald
February 13, 2011