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Cowgirls hold off UNC comeback attempt
ABOVE: UNC’s Marcie Johnson shields the ball from Wyoming defender Jerrica DiVincenzo and shoots. (photos by George Tanner/ColoradoSoccerNow.com) BELOW: Goal scorer Emily Layton, wearing a dark headband, is congratulated by her Wyoming teammates. (photo by George Tanner/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)
GREELEY — As Wyoming appeared to run out of gas, the University of Northern Colorado soccer team ran out of time. Wyoming’s Emily Layton scored in the 48th minute of Sunday’s nationally televised match, and the Cowgirls survived a spirited comeback attempt in the final 20 minutes to leave Jackson Stadium with a 1-0 victory.
In a game that was long on energy but short on creativity, it was a frantic finish that the TV audience will remember. The Bears, hoping to find the equalizer in front of the Fox Soccer Channel cameras, mounted an effective attack only as the match threatened to end.
With 40 seconds to play, UNC’s Brittani Knott took a long throw-in from the right sideline. The ball went over or through most of the players in the penalty area, and that caught senior Marcie Johnson off guard. The ball hit her legs and bounced easily to Wyoming goalkeeper Courtney Merkle. Had Johnson been a few feet farther back, maybe she’d have had enough time to react to the play. That’s not to say she was out of position; moving farther away from the throw-in when you’re already on the other half if the field, widthwise, is probably counterintuitive.
The throw came only about 90 seconds after UNC’s Ariel Cook corralled a centering pass from Alexsys Tamayo, spun and shot wide left of the Wyoming net. Tamayo got in the act, too, forcing a save from Merkle on a shot from near the midfield stripe.
JJ Wykstra had a go with 17 minutes to play, and UNC had a few other opportunities on corner kicks. The most they could get out of them was another wide shot by Cook in the 70th minute.
“On some of those long throws and corners, if one player’s a few steps in a different direction … ,” UNC coach Tim Barrera said.
But all of those chances paled to the one Danielle Birdsall had in the 84th minute.
UNC had struggled to connect passes all day; the pattern that played out repeatedly was short-short-short-long-turnover. But with six minutes to play, lightning struck. The Bears got one over the Cowgirls’ back line and right into the path of speedy freshman Birdsall.
The ball, though, got ahead of Birdsall, and Merkle gambled successfully with a long run off her line to smother it.
“When we put Birdsall through, that’s a ball she normally scores,” Barrera said. “It just ran away from here a little bit. She just needs to get a toe or something on it, and we’re right back in the match.”
Wyoming coach Danny Sanchez said there was not much difference between the teams on Sunday.
“It was always going to be a one-goal game,” he said. “It was just a little unlucky there at the end. Ariel and Danielle both had great opportunities, so this easily could’ve been an overtime game.”
Birdsall’s short-lived breakaway was as heartbreaking for the Bears as it was surprising. UNC accomplished little on the attack on Sunday because of the outstanding play of Wyoming defenders Bostyn Burger, Allison Masumiya, Emma Wilson and Mara Cosgrove. In the first 70 minutes of the match, the Wyoming defense gobbled up everything UNC threw at it. Perhaps, in view of the final score, the same could be said of the final 20 minutes as well, but at least the Bears made the end of the game difficult.
“We talked about that at halftime. We’d have some possession then we’d try for a home run ball,” Barrera said. “We talked about how organized Wyoming is at the back and how we just needed to connect one or two more passes and then it would be there. We played a few too many balls in the air knowing that their center backs are good in the air. We were a little too optimistic on some of those balls. We needed to be a little more disciplined.”
The game’s lone goal came with the ball bouncing around in the Bears’ defensive third with no one able to control it before Wyoming’s Chelsea Coddington. She spotted Layton, who beat one defender then blasted it past UNC goalkeeper Kirstin Salminen and into the back netting.
“It was really exciting because I’ve had a number of opportunities like that this season,” said Layton, a senior who attended Palmer High School in Colorado Springs. “Just to put one away in a game like this and make the difference for my team is exciting for me. Chelsea broke through their defense and slotted me a perfect ball. I beat their first player and nicked one in.”
Layton also said there wasn’t a lot that separated the two sides on Sunday.
“Both teams played with a lot of heart and passion, and we were just able to finish our opportunities.”
RECORDS: UNC fell to 4-5-1, and Wyoming improved to 7-4-2.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: My temptation here is to give the honor to the Wyoming back line of Burger, Masumiya, Wilson and Mara Cosgrove (who also had some help from Morgan Johnson, among others). But I always prefer choosing a single player over a group. Of the defenders, I’d say Cosgrove was the strongest. But Layton scored the winning goal, so she’s my player of the game. “Everybody in the park knew she was going to tee her right foot up. She showed a little shake move and struck a great goal,” Barrera said. “The kid hammered it.”
IN GOAL: Heidi Owen started the game in net for the Bears, but Barrera shifted to Salminen for the second half.
SAVE OF THE MATCH: Junior Olivia Deadmond held the game at 1-0 after a scramble on the ball in the 62nd minute of play. Salminen came out to punch a ball away, but she didn’t clear it completely. The ball bounced around in a scramble in front of goal, and Cosgrove took a shot that got past Salminen. Deadmond, however, did the splits right on the goal line, thrusting out her right leg to deflect the shot. Deadmond showed a limberness that most members of the human species can only dream of.
THE TV ANGLE: The match is one of eight Divison I women’s matches that will be television this season on Fox Soccer Channel. The game will be telecast at 6 p.m. Tuesday. “It’s huge for Northern Colorado, of course, but it’s huge for us as well,” Sanchez said. “Kids back East, in the Midwest, they don’t know where Wyoming is or Northern Colorado. … To see this beautiful facility and a good rivalry and a good battle, hey, it’s great.”
WEATHER MATTERS: Overcast skies and temperatures in the 40s greeted fans at Jackson Stadium. Although the morning was full of drizzle in Greeley, there was no precipitation during the match.
WHAT’S NEXT? The Bears head to Portland State to open up conference play Friday against the Vikings before returning to Jackson Stadium to face Sacramento State at noon Sunday.
WYOMING STARTERS: Courtney Merkle, Emily Layton, Bostyn Burger, Jerrica DiVincenzo, Chelsea Coddington, Carmen Blume, Allison Masumiya, Emma Wilson, Mara Cosgrove, Nicole Rice, Juliana Candelaria.
NORTHERN COLORADO STARTERS: Heidi Owen, Janelle Kramer, Kimmie Feidler, Krystine Dalton, Sydney VanderVelde, Marcie Johnson, Brittani Knott, Olivia Deadmond, Ariel Cook, Alexsys Tamayo, Laura Wayland.
George Tanner is a former writer and editor for the Rocky Mountain News; the Greeley Tribune; The Daily Independent of Ridgecrest, Calif.; the Durango Herald; and the Boulder Daily Camera. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado and an affiliate professor at Metropolitan State College of Denver. E-mail him at ColoradoSoccerNow@gmail.com.
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Why was Fox Soccer Channel so slow in getting the word out about broadcasting this game? This shouldn’t have been any great surprise. Plus, the choice of squads was a bit perplexing.
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