The Oregon women’s soccer team proved that it can win on the road when it marched into Laramie, Wyo., and won the Brown and Gold Tournament, defeating Nevada (4-4-1) 2-1 on Friday and host Wyoming (3-3-3) 1-0 on Sunday. The Ducks (8-1-1) are flawless on the road this season, boasting a 4-0 record. They have stayed perfect going into this week thanks to clutch defensive play.
On Sunday, the Ducks topped the Cowgirls in unusual fashion, sitting on an early lead and watching their defense preserve a win. Oregon senior midfielder Caitlin Gamble stuck an unassisted shot in the back of Wyoming’s net a little more than four minutes into the first half, giving the Ducks the lead. The Salt Lake City native made the most of a critical mistake by goalkeeper Jamie Scarcliff, who could not haul in a save off of a previous shot. The ball deflected from Scarcliff to an unforgiving Gamble who buried it in the open net. It marked the second goal of the season for Gamble and the seventh of her career. After the game, Wyoming head coach Anne Moore marveled at the Ducks’ resilience and reflected on her goalkeeper’s costly mishap.
“We had to resort to playing their game, which was a little disappointing. However, they are an extremely tough team and this was a good team to face heading into conference play next weekend,” Moore said. “Overall, it was a very even game and our one mistake in the first half ended up costing us a chance to win.”
Gamble’s goal sparked the Ducks to stay strong despite playing at 7,000 feet above sea level. Tournament MVP and Oregon freshman goalkeeper Jessie Chatfield and the defense took it from that point. Chatfield delivered another solid performance, notching five saves en route to her sixth shutout of the season. It posts her fourth scoreless outing in the last five games and extends her own school record. The play of the young goalkeeper this season has the mark of a veteran and has made low-scoring games easier to watch for first-year head coach Tara Erickson.
“Jessie came up with two huge game-winning saves for us,” Erickson said. “It was a tough day on the defense with a lot of wind and difficult bounces because it’s a very hard playing surface, but I was impressed with how well we adapted to the conditions.”
Gamble and Chatfield were both honored alongside their senior teammates Nicole Garbin and Cristan Higa on the all-tournament team. Chatfield has earned a career’s worth of accolades this season already. Last Tuesday she was honored as the Pacific-10 Conference Women’s Soccer Player of the Week and was named the MVP of the season-opening Oregon Classic.
On Friday, Garbin scored her sixth game-winning goal of the season to push the Ducks past Nevada. Garbin’s goal came at the 36:34 mark and gave Oregon a comfortable 2-0 lead, but the Wolfpack answered. Nevada closed the gap to 2-1 in the 81st minute with a goal by Miranda Montejo, ending Chatfield’s scoreless minutes streak of 355:47. Garbin’s goal would prove to be the clincher for Erickson’s squad who prevented a game-tying rally.
“It’s too bad to lose the scoreless streak,” Erickson said. “But I give Nevada’s players credit for battling hard and making a game of it.”
Nevada head coach Terri Patraw was pleased that her team refused to go scoreless, but would like to have seen more from them.
“We didn’t bring our ‘A’ game today, but we were still the more dangerous team out there,” Patraw said. “We had several scoring opportunities that we didn’t put away. We battled hard today but just didn’t get the results we wanted.”
Senior Andrea Valadez got Oregon ahead first in the game with a first-half goal scored in the 29th minute. Freshman defender Allison Newton set up the goal with a cross that found the head of Valadez. It was the first goal of the season for Valadez, ending a drought extending almost one year back. Erickson felt that the goal was a testament to her team’s persistence in the first half.
“I thought we were composed, especially in the first 30 minutes,” Erickson said. “It was good to see Andrea score from the midfield position on a really nice goal and a good ball from Ally Newton.”
With the non-conference schedule now in their wake, it’s full-steam ahead for the Ducks toward conference play, which opens this weekend on the road against No. 24 Arizona (5-3-2) and Arizona State (5-4-2), who both suffered losses last week. The Ducks have an unscathed record aside from a 7-0 loss to No. 2 Portland and a 1-1 tie to Gonzaga and are currently second in the Pac-10 standings.
