TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The Northeastern State women's soccer team defeated Missouri Western State 1-0 on Sunday afternoon at DeLoache Field.
The RiverHawks improved to 7-1 overall and 2-0 in MIAA play, while the Griffons fell to 4-2-1 on the year and 0-1-1 in the conference. The contest halted a three-match streak of NSU allowing teams to score. Northeastern State also now has five shutouts this season and has outscored opponents 29-3.
The match got off to a slow start, with neither team making a lot of noise offensively in the first half. The two clubs combined for just four first-half shots, and the score line read 0-0 after 45 minutes of play.
NSU came out the aggressor in the second half, as the home side attempted the first five shots of the period. The tiebreaking game-winning goal came off the foot of junior midfielder
Jennifer Cudjoe, who volleyed in a corner kick to the far post that was perfectly placed by fellow junior midfielder
Kelsey McIntyre. Cudjoe now has five goals this season.
Sophomore midfielder
Julia Mathis led Northeastern State in overall shots (5) and shots on goal (3).
The RiverHawks outshot Missouri Western State 15-4 and held a narrow 6-5 advantage in corner kicks.
Junior goalkeeper
Jordan Woodruff (7-1) collected her third clean sheet of the season after saving the lone shot on goal faced all afternoon. She extended her own school records with her 30th career victory in net and her 17th career clean sheet. Sarah Lyle (4-2-1) made five saves for the visitors and took the loss after conceding the lone goal of the day.
The RiverHawks will have some time off before heading on the road for their next match against Emporia State at 7 p.m. Oct. 2 in Emporia, Kansas.
Scoring SummaryMWSU 0 0 – 0
NSU 0 1 – 1
Individual ScoringJennifer Cudjoe (NSU) at 62:10 (
Kelsey McIntyre)
Goalkeeper SavesSarah Lyle (MWSU) – 5
Jordan Woodruff (NSU) – 1
NORTHEASTERN STATE COACH CHASE WOOTENOn the slow first half…"We all agree we thought we underachieved in the first half. We were taking shortcuts, which is one of the things we talked about in pregame. That was frustrating to watch go down. We were able to rest some legs on Friday (against Northwest Missouri State) and I thought we would have that advantage. Missouri Western on the front end just seemed like they had so much more pep in their step. I thought in the second half we got a little bit of a wind and a little bit of a reorganization from halftime. We made some progress there. Our second half was good. We weren't awful in the first half but we weren't going to separate ourselves from anybody with the effort we were putting out. As it goes, sometimes you only have to play half of a game to get it done, but that's not a policy we want to live by for very long or we'll start losing matches."
On scoring in the second half…"I thought in the second half we had some really good chances that didn't go in. We had a chance to really separate ourselves and create a little bit of a cushion as opposed to the nail biter we created. In doing that, we didn't push (
Rebecca Gleason) up on that corner, and we had (
Rachel Gleason) in, so we did several things there. When (
Jennifer Cudjoe) goes to hit (the game-winning goal), the goalkeeper didn't have a chance to react. We just happened to find the spot between where her body and where the near post was. It was a good finish, because it's not easy to put crosses like that back on frame. We'd had several dangerous corners that we didn't do anything with and it was nice that we got one to go in."
On staying motivated amidst all the wins…"Again, pregame talk was how champions behave and how we take things one half at a time. For us it was very much about what our effort was going to be today. I'm not sure the message was resonated as well as it needed to with the full group, but I think at halftime we were able to refocus everybody. We're certainly not looking past anything, we've just got to go one match at a time and do the best we can."
-GoRiverHawksGo.com-
