Keelie Fothergill scored the game winner in overtime for the Jays (Streur / WBR) $CLICK TO BUY$
Being at home was indeed sweet for Ross Paule’s Bluejays on Friday night. Playing their first match at Morrison Stadium after five straight road matches to open the season, Creighton peppered South Dakota’s defense with shot after shot and found the back of the net in the first five minutes of the match and final five minutes of overtime to earn a 2-1 win over the Coyotes. Freshman Aline Reinkober scored the first one and sophomore Keelie Fothergill scored the golden goal in the first overtime period to improve the Jays to 3-3-0 in 2018.
“This group rose [to the occassion],” Paule said of his team’s performance. “This is a group that I saw really get in tune. I could feel it and I could see it in their eyes. I saw it in their eyes going into overtime and it hasn’t always been that way. I’m very proud of them and proud of what they did. They deserved the win.”
The Bluejays pushed the pace early in the match and Reinkober made it count in the 5th minute. Senior forward Kaira Houser played a cross into the box hoping to find a teammate on the end of a near post run. Instead it found the foot of a South Dakota defender, who tried to connect a pass up the box, but it was intercepted by Reinkober who wasted no time in firing it over the Coyotes goalkeeper Parker Rytz for her second goal of the season.
“That was a special finish — a top class goal,” Paule said. “Aline is growing into this style of game, but she’s a huge player for us. She keeps the ball, she moves the ball, she’s creative, and obviously she can score goals … she’s only going to get better.”
The Jays celebrate a goal (Streur / WBR) $CLICK TO BUY$
South Dakota answered with the equalizer ten minutes later as junior midfielder Amanda Caprio took advantage of the Jays being a player down when Haylee Blach was injured early in the sequence on a hard challenge outside the box. As Blach waved for trainers, play developed ahead of her as Caprio beat a diving save attempt by Creighton goalkeeper Katie Sullivan with a low shot across the box and just inside the far post to tie the match at one goal apiece.
Creighton dictated an overwhelming majority of the action in the first and second half, but they were just missing a little something extra in the attacking third in order to finish off the chances they were creating and as a result found themselves flirting with misfortune in a tie match.
“The goal they scored should have never been scored and we know that, but we put ourselves in that situation,” Paule said. “In the first ten minutes, I felt like we could have been up 3-0. We just didn’t have that grit, that bite in the box, that killer instinct. That’s something we’ll learn from, because we are going to watch the film and see that we let them back into the game, and went you let teams grow back into the game it gets dangerous. It was a little bit frustrating because we controlled the game and moved the ball, but we weren’t dangerous enough. We created a lot of shots, but we’d like to get more crosses off and be more dynamic in the box.”
Freshman Ansley Atkinson was key in the Jays game winning goal (Streur / WBR) $CLICK TO BUY$
The Bluejays owned a 24-7 advantage in shots, including a 13-3 edge after halftime, but it only took one in the overtime to spark a celebration on the field. Freshman Ansley Atkinson bounced the ball in to Fothergill on a CU throw-in with just over four minutes remaining in the first bonus period. Fothergill held off her defender near the edge of the box, turned and fired a shot around Rytz and just inside the far post for the golden goal to give the Jays their third win in the last four matches.
“It was an incredible goal, it really was,” Paule said of Fothergill’s heroics. “She’s a special player and she’s just now getting fit off of her injury from the spring and summer, and the more fit she gets the better she gets. She does those kind of things. I’m not surprised. She holds the ball so well. She has great skill, great vision, and she used it in the box which is the best part.”
Next time out, Creighton will look to keep their momentum rolling with a 7:00 p.m. match on the road at UMKC on Sunday, September 10th.
See Photos Of the Game Courtesy of WBR photographer Adam Streur