Sophomore Lauren Sullivan literally ran home a goal before the game was even five minutes old. Later, senior center back Madelyn Buckner scored on a penalty kick to propel the Creighton women’s soccer team to a 2-0 victory in their 2014 home opener on Sunday afternoon at Morrison Stadium.
Sullivan and junior Kirstyn Corder looked determined to put this one away early, carrying over from their strong performances in Friday’s 3-2 win at South Dakota State. They hooked up in the first minute of the game when Corder flipped the ball over not only her head, but also over the back line of Incarnate Word where Sullivan possessed it after timing her run. After getting a step on her defender she fired off her shot, but freshman keeper Karly Brightwell made the diving save. That would be the first of several meeting between Brightwell and Sullivan in the first five minutes as the Bluejay sophomore hunted down that always important first goal.
Two minutes later, Corder sent a through ball down the middle which met senior Stephanie Anasi in stride. Brightwell came off her line and deflected Anasi’s shot away as she dribbled toward the goal. Fortunately for the Bluejays, Lauren Sullivan was right there to coral the deflection. She touched it once on the run and blasted it into the back of the net as her momentum carried her into the back of the goal as well. After scoring 151 goals in high school and now registering her fourth career goal at Creighton, Sullivan admitted that this one was one of the more awkward looking goals she has banged home in her years on the pitch.
“(Assistant coach) Courtney (Weisler) has been on us about following shots and getting runs into the goal, making sure we follow everything,” said Sullivan. “Steph got the ball played through and I was just thinking ‘keep going, keep going.’ I think it took an awkward deflection and I was thinking it was going in, but I had to make sure. I think it was already basically in, and I just wanted to smash it into the back of the net.”
The Bluejays had a few more chances in front of goal in the first half, but couldn’t convert and Creighton went to the locker room with a 1-0 lead that should have been a lot more.
“That game should have been five or six to zero, maybe in the first half,” Sullivan said. “We had so many chances. We were flat. You can say it was hot or we just played on Friday, but at this point those are just excuses. We were flat and we know we need to be better.”
Creighton second goal came quickly in the second half when Kirstyn Corder got dribbled by two defenders down the left side before getting taken down inside the box to set up a penalty kick for the Bluejays. Senior Madelyn Buckner stepped up to take the kick and easily slotted it into the left half of the goal after Incarnate Word keeper went to her left with her first move as Buckner approached the ball.
“I knew what I was going to do right away,” Buckner said. “We’ve practiced them so going up there I just thought about being at practice again and that calmed me down. I just had it in my head where I wanted to go. I didn’t even look at the keeper so I could just stay focused on where I wanted to put it.”
It was a welcome sight for Buckner. The senior and three-time co-captain battled injury all of last season and never felt better than 75% at any point last season, according to head coach Bruce Erickson. Two things are obvious: her impact on the team can’t be overstated and being at full strength is something she isn’t taking for granted on the field this season.
“I was so excited to be back healthy this year,” she said. “Last year was really hard not being able to play like I know I can and it definitely gives you a new perspective.”
Maintaining the 2-0 lead would prove to be a difficult task, but sophomore goalkeeper Danielle Rice was up to the task of preserving her 5th career clean sheet at Creighton. In the 59th minute, freshman Incarnate Word forward found space behind Creighton’s back line. She dribbled towards the goal, but Rice expertly closed off her shooting window and deflected her shot away. Again in the 72nd minute Incarnate Word would create a great chance. This time senior midfielder Sarah Johnson got free to Rice’s right, and sent a shot to the outside post. Rice just got her left hand on it to knock it off course and keep it out of the goal to cap off a second straight shutout win in a home opener for the Creighton women’s soccer team.
“It’s a point of pride for the defense,” Rice said of her first clean sheet of the young season. “I consider it a point of pride for the entire back five. It’s a good thing to say we walked out, worked hard, and didn’t give up any goals.”
Despite the win and the undefeated start to the season, there are no delusions about the overall performance so far. As Sullivan alluded to, the performance was flat and needs to get better before conference play starts.
“These games that lead up to conference, they matter, but all of the games we play up until conference are just preparation for conference,” Sullivan said. “We need to get all of the kinks worked out.”
Head coach Bruce Erickson didn’t really address one specific issue, but said the mentality needs to change despite the favorable result.
“The win was about the only positive takeaway,” he said. “There are a lot of times with losses where you just want to forget a game, but I think that holds true with wins. It wasn’t anywhere near the kind of performance we expect. We had everything going for us in the first five minutes, got the early goal and you expect everything to sort of fall into place, but it was almost the worst thing that could have happened. We were just flat, not energetic, and you could read it in our body language. You hate to be coaching effort, but that has to be a better performance.”
The Bluejays will get a day off to rest and recover before getting back to practice on Tuesday morning as they prepare for a Labor Day match against Western Illinois at noon at Morrison Stadium.
Notes: Sophomore Lauren Sullivan tallied her first career game-winning goal in the first half. … Sophomore goalkeeper Danielle Rice earned her 11th career victory, which ties her with former Jay, Katie Jo Swanson for 8th place on Creighton’s all-time wins list. … The shutout was the 5th of Danielle Rice’s young career, putting her just outside the top 10 all-time at Creighton. … This marks the first time since 2008 that Creighton has won both their home and road openers. … The shutouts in both the 2013 & 2014 home opener marks the first time under Bruce Erickson, and the first time it has happened since 1996 & 1997 seasons.
