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Hollenga scores twice as Skyhawks advance to final vs. Metro State
Fort Lewis defender Laurel Reinhardt cleans up the mess after Kayla Mitchell, right, got the ball behind FLC goalkeeper Christine Schmelzle. (photo by Tom Auclair/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)
DENVER — Hayley Hollenga scored two goals, including the game winner with a little more than 6 minutes to play, as the Fort Lewis College women’s soccer team knocked off the Colorado School of Mines 3-2 on Friday at Auraria Field in the semifinals of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament.
Mines, which fell to 17-4-0, was the No. 2 seed in the tournament; Fort Lewis, now 18-2-2, is third. The Skyhawks will meet the top seed, Metropolitan State College, at noon Sunday in the final.
Hollenga scored the first goal in the fifth minute of the game. She beat two defenders on the dribble then fired a long shot into the left side netting past Mines goalkeeper Briana Schulze.
But her other goal was the key, coming with 6 minutes, 16 seconds to play. With the score knotted at 2-2, defender Jessica Otero used some space along that right flank to send a long cross into the Orediggers’ penalty area, and Hollenga surged forward to head the ball past Schulze.
“We knew it would come, if we stayed patient and got back to what we do,” Fort Lewis coach Damian Clark said. “We’re a better possession team than most of the teams we play against. I really felt that if we keep the ball and do what we do, eventually we were going to catch them. It was just nice to see it coming. That’s the first time I’ve seen Hayley head a ball in the goal.”
Fort Lewis had to wait so long to find the decisive goal because the possession game that Clark mentioned wasn’t clicking. Midfielder Erika Shisler was nursing an injured upper thigh and hip, and it was clear early in the match that something was affecting her performance.
From the opening kickoff, Clark pleaded with his players to get the ball to Shisler so she could jump-start the offense, but the junior midfielder from Durango wasn’t as effective as Clark was hoping. Her midfield partner Jamie MacArthur was having a better showing, and Clark eventually pulled Shisler off the pitch. She was stone-faced as she came toward the sideline, and Clark gave her a look to judge her reaction as she took a seat at the opposite end of the Skyhawks’ bench.
Without Shisler pulling the strings in the midfield, Mines was able to work the ball to RMAC Player of the Year Kayla Mitchell, who challenged the Skyhawks’ back line with her speed and power. Mitchell and teammate Liz Oba found enough of the ball in the first half to keep Fort Lewis off balance and to send the Orediggers into halftime with a 2-1 lead.
Mitchell sent a long cross to Jessica Stark in the 19th minute that Stark headed in for Mines’ first score, erasing the lead that Hollenga had given the Skyhawks early on. Then Stark gave Mines the lead in the 37th minute as the FLC defense was on its heels again. Megan Woodworth took a shot on a free kick from about 35 yards out that Fort Lewis goalkeeper Christine Schmelzle tipped up into the crossbar. But the play flustered Fort Lewis, the ball banged around in the box and this time Stark got on the end of a cross by Adrea Johnson for Mines’ second goal.
“Kayla Mitchell is just a handful,” Clark said. “She tore us apart in the first half. Whether it was her doing the damage or not, it was her presence that made the back four disorganized for a long time.”
After halftime, though, Shisler got back on the pitch, and Fort Lewis got back on track.
“She’s usually quite a bit more effective, and you could tell she wasn’t getting up into that flank space like we normally ask her to,” Clark said. “In the second half, you saw the ball get in to her feet plenty of times, and that’s where the creation of our confidence happened.”
The Skyhawks looked like a different squad after Shisler returned. They controlled the tempo in the second half as Shisler prowled the midfield, favoring the right flank. Mines had few answers and, as a consequence, not much of an attack.
Her big moment came in the 53rd minute with her team trailing 2-1. Shisler struck the ball in from the right wing, and MacArthur charged onto the pass at the far post, banging in the tying goal and officially returning momentum to the team wearing sky blue.
“We play through our wings,” Shisler said. “They passed it out to me, and I just played a ball to Jamie in the middle and she finished. Luckily, I have a bad-ass team.”
Clark said the time on the bench was good for his playmaker.
“It was mental for her. And once she kind of sat down and watched it for a little bit and figured out where the space was … ,” he said. “And she still wasn’t as effective as she can be. She’s probably one of the best athletes in the conference. And when turns and just decides to run, there’s no one in the conference that can deal with her. She’s just too fast.”
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Although Shisler made a huge difference in limited time, Hollenga gets the nod. She opened the scoring for Fort Lewis then closed the door on Mines. Clark was impressed with Hollenga’s game-winning header, but he seemed more impressed with her first goal. “The first finish, are you kidding me? Not many girls strike the ball with the outside of their foot like that. That was just dirty,” Clark said. “Hayley’s an absolute monster.”
SAVE OF THE GAME: Trailing 2-1, Schmelzle kept her team in the match with key stops on Oba and Mitchell in the 53rd minute. After Oba got past the Fort Lewis defense, Schmelzle rushed forward and slid into Oba’s feet to smother the ball. Oba, though, shot just ast Schmelzle arrived, and the ball bounced away. Mitchell swooped in, but not in time. Schmelzle had just enough time to recover from her collision with Oba to block a shot by Mitchell and snuff the scoring threat. Schmelzle also made a dramatic save on a shot by Oba about 10 minutes into the second half, one of the most acrobatic saves of the season.
IN THE OTHER NET: Schulze’s best save came against Michelle Felten in the first half. Felten survived an attempted tackle by Alison Oien, got back to her feet and collected the ball. She fired a blast that Schulze tipped just over the goal. Schulze also squelched a first-half scoring attempt set up by some nice passing between MacArthur, Hollenga and Elena Benavides, whose shot finished the sequence. Benavides ripped a shot to the left post, coaxing a desperate dive to the right from Schulze. She stopped the ball, but it popped free when she landed. She was able to reach with her other hand and keep the ball from rolling over the goal line.
FORT LEWIS STARTERS: Christine Schmelzle, Serena Mancha, Jessica Otero, Samantha Smith, Erika Shisler, Jamie MacArthur, Nichole Kluk, Michelle Felten, Laurel Reinhardt, Hayley Hollenga, Elena Benavides.
MINES STARTERS: Briana Schulze, Aubrey Bagley, Stefanie Frelinger, Jessica Stark, Dani Hering, Alison Oien, Adrea Johnson, Liz Oba, Kayla Mitchell, Allison Heeg, Megan Woodworth.
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