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Grizzlies snap road losing streak
After giving up an early goal to former teammate Katie Larghe, Adams State College’s Jessica Hellweg and Ashley Sales scored goals less than six minutes apart before Amber Drumm iced a 3-1 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference women’s soccer win with a late score as the Grizzlies snapped a five-match slide with the road triumph over Nebraska-Kearney on Thursday night at Ron & Carol Cope Stadium at Foster Field.
The Grizzlies, who won an RMAC road match for the first time in a dozen tries dating back to Oct. 28, 2007, are now 4-9 overall and 2-7 in conference play. Both conference wins have come over the first-year Lopers, now 1-11-1 overall and 0-8-1 in RMAC play.
Larghe, who played for the Grizzlies in 2007, wasted little time in scoring her first collegiate goal, as she put UNK up 1-0 just 2 minutes, 25 seconds into the match after putting in a shot from the left side after receiving an Emma Kelly pass.
However, the Grizzlies quickly answered as Hellweg tallied her fourth goal of the season at the 6:39 mark, when she put one of her six shots over Loper goalkeeper Marissa Niday’s head.
The Grizzlies, who outshot the Lopers 21-12, continued the pressure. Sales and Hellweg saw shots bounce off the post before Sales gave the Grizzlies the lead for good with her team-leading fifth goal of the season at the 12:24 mark.
That goal, which proved to be her third game-winner of the season and the fifth of her career, was Sales’ 18th career tally, moving her within two of ASC’s career-record of 20, held by Sara Lyles. She is now tied with Lyles and Sarah Johnson for the Adams State record for career game-winning goals.
Sales, who transferred along with Grizzly head coach Tom Cliff from Northwestern (Iowa) prior to the 2007 season, had a single-season school record 13 goals as a junior in 2007 before redshirting last season.
Thursday’s score remained 2-1 throughout the rest of the first half and for more than 40 minutes of the second before Drumm tallied her first goal of the season on a 30-yard free kick with just 4:30 left to play.
Sales finished the night with a match-high seven shots and now has 116 in her career, tied for second in school history with Larissa Galpin. Sales and Hellweg finished with three shots on goal, leading the Grizzlies to a 10-5 edge in that category.
Larghe, who put two shots on frame, and Morgan Abert had three total shots each to lead the Lopers.
Grizzly sophomore goalkeeper Kirsten Dorsey picked up the win as she made four saves. Niday had seven saves for the Lopers.
Thursday night’s match completed a string of three straight road matches for the Grizzlies, who now return home to face Mesa State at 2 p.m. Sunday to begin a season-ending stretch in which the Grizzlies will play five of seven at Murphy Field.
Prior to Thursday night, the Grizzlies had played each of their past five and six of their past seven matches against teams ranked in the top five of the NCAA’s central regional. Mesa State is seventh in the region.
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