On a night where emotions burned hot, a true freshman from Germany gave the Bluejays the upper hand for another year in the ongoing battle for women’s soccer supremacy in the city of Omaha. Midfielder Aline Reinkober showed off her quick strike left-footed brilliance during the preseason. At Caniglia Field on Monday night, she put it on display again with a 67th minute game-winner to break a scoreless tie and give Creighton a 1-0 win over their crosstown rival Omaha Mavericks.
Each side had their moments in a seesaw of a first half that saw both the Jays and Mavs produced eight shots apiece. Both teams weren’t shy about taking their chances from distance against a pair of goalkeepers, but Creighton’s Katie Sullivan and Omaha’s Ina Gudjonsdottir were up to the task of stifling any and all opportunistic strikers in the first 45 minutes.
Taryn Jakubowski’s near-miss from around 20 yards out just before halftime capped off a first half that saw momentum starting to swing in Creighton’s favor. The second half told more of that same story until Reinkober made one count midway through the final period. The quick strike heroics were set up by a little here-you-go dump off pass in the run of play by freshman midfielder Ansley Atkinson. Reinkober was unmarked in the middle of the pitch as Atkinson drew a pair of Omaha defenders to her before connecting with Reinkober, who took a touch to create some distance and fired a shot from 25 yards away into the upper corner of net for her first career goal. The newcomer from Riesa, Germany may have wowed the crowd with her power and precision from distance, but it didn’t come as any sort of surprise to her own sideline.
“She does that quite a bit in training,” Creighton head coach Ross Paule said after the match. “She’s got a special left foot. She had a few chances in the first half and I thought she was going to end up taking a shot, but anytime she has the ball at the top of the box — whether it’s a set piece or in the run of play — it’s going to be dangerous. She’s dangerous because if you close her down she’s going to pick somebody else out and if you don’t close her down she’s going to shoot … what you saw there was a special moment.”
The Mavericks turned up the pressure in pursuit of the equalizer, but after several tense moments — and some jawing back and forth from both benches — it was the Jays who celebrated in the end after earning their first win of the season and ninth in 10 all-time meetings against UNO.
“It’s a big rivalry,” Paule said. “I don’t want to lose any game, but when you lose one around your home it makes it a lot worse. I treat every game the same, but it always feels wonderful to walk out of here with a win.
“I feel like this was a big step forward for us … winning and getting a shutout in a tough place to play is huge for this team, because we go on the road a lot obviously. To win in this hostile environment is a big step for us. I was very proud of them.”
The Bluejays improved to 1-2-0 in 2018, while the Mavericks fell to 0-3-1. Next up for UNO is a match away from the friendly confines of Caniglia Field against Missouri State. Creighton, meanwhile, will head back out on the road for an 11:00 a.m. kickoff at Eastern Michigan on Friday, August 31st followed by a 1:00 p.m. clash at South Dakota State on Sunday, September 2nd.
