Junior forward Kirstyn Corder scored two goals, including the game-winner with 7:33 remaining in regulation, as the Creighton women’s soccer team earned a hard fought 3-2 victory in their season opener at South Dakota State on a muggy Friday night in Brookings, South Dakota.
“You take them any way you can get them,” said Bluejay head coach Bruce Erickson. “It’s a grind-it-out win on the road. It doesn’t matter how ugly or pretty it is, we just kind of found a way.”
It was definitely more ugly than pretty in the first half as both teams failed to convert after creating some really high percentage chances in the first half as they battled to a 0-0 draw after the first 45 minutes. The first big opportunity of the match came courtesy of a sloppy pass by Creighton into its own back line where South Dakota State forward Diana Potterveld easily intercepted it and took off towards the Creighton goal. She had Bluejay keeper Danielle Rice sized up, but rusher her shot and sent it wide to the right of the goal, not even forcing Rice to make a play on it.
In the 35th minute, Corder won the ball away from a couple defender inside the six-yard box, but her shot on goal deflected off the right post to keep the game scoreless.
The second half was the polar opposite of the first. Chances are if you blinked at all during the final 45 minutes then you probably missed something. The scoreboard at Fishback Soccer Park finally got put to use in the 56th minute when Potterveld for her missed opportunity in the first half. She broke through the Creighton back line and fired a shot at Rice. The Bluejay keeper timed the shot perfectly and deflected it away, but not far enough out of Potterveld’s reach as the Jackrabbit forward corralled the rebound and slotted the ball into the right side of the net to put the Bluejays in a 1-0 hole.
Creighton’s top attackers responded immediately as juniors Corder and Alyssa Jara along with sophomore Lauren Sullivan dominated the match and applied relentless pressure to South Dakota State goalkeeper Nicole Inskeep. Jara and Sullivan took a couple of great shots at the Jackrabbit goal as the match entered its 60th minute. Then Kirstyn Corder put the Jays on the board thanks to a determined attack. She fought through one defender, then another, then the SDSU keeper, and by the time she was finished Corder was on the ground and the ball had just enough momentum to clear the line and tie the match a 1-1 with 34:29 remaining.
“I was on the ground, so tired I didn’t want to get up,” Corder joked afterwards. “I was just wishing it would go in. … I was dead, literally on the ground thinking if I got that lost touch in, and I saw it slowly rolling in. I was just thinking I hope this goes in.”
With the match tied things were just getting started in what proved to be a wild second half. Two pinpoint through balls by Sullivan set up chances for senior Addison Nokels, and Jara found junior transfer Anastasia McCleary from 18 yards out to put another ball on goal. Then Jara took matters into her own hands when she dribbled to her right, turned and fired a strike to the upper left corner of the goal from just inside 25 yards to give Creighton a 2-1 lead with 18:26 left to play in the match.
“I got my looks in,” Jara said of her approach leading up to the go-ahead goal. “I just knew I had to test out their keeper. There were times where she saved or I hit it right at her and it was frustrating, but finally that second goal to get us in the lead I was so excited. I felt like that boosted up our confidence even more.”
Unfortunately for Creighton it didn’t boost up the defense as another breakdown in front of goal allowed the Jackrabbits to tie the match barely two minutes later. A Bluejay defender fell down trying to win the ball away from Potterveld to the left of the six-yard box. After Potterveld gained possession she crossed the ball in front of the Creighton goal and found Shelby Raper who quickly took advantage, putting it into the back of the net to even the score at 2-2 in the 74th minute. As prolific as they were offensively, it was another example of the constant breakdowns Creighton experienced defensively. After the match, Bruce Erickson didn’t hesitate to state that these were the type of goals you can’t give up.
“I thought both goals were breakdowns,” he said. “Rusty. Dani, rusty. In the back we just looked all out of sorts. We were so disjointed, all four (defenders) equally. I’m afraid to go back and look at how many giveaways we had in the back. We had possession of the ball and we just kept giving it back and that put a lot of stress on our back four. They had no chance to get a blow, no chance to get a rest.”
Good thing for the Jays that the Corder-Jara-Sullivan trio were not giving the South Dakota State defense any chances to rest, either. In the 83rd minute, Corder struck the decisive blow when she received a cross from junior right back Jill Richgels and slotted it over Inskeep’s head and finally deliver the knockout blow to the Jackrabbits. For the match, those three took 14 of Creighton’s 19 shots, and accounted for nine of their 12 shots on goal, scoring each of the three goals. It was a dominant effort by Creighton’s top offensive threats.
For her part, Jara, who led the team with six shots and four on goal, earned player of the match praise from her head coach.
“She just really affected the game,” Erickson said. “She was a difference maker. I challenged her during halftime and then at the end of the game against Missouri State. I said ‘you’re a player, you’ve got to show up.’ She answered the call big time. She was great in training and it’s nice to see her rewarded, not only with a team, but also her banging in a goal. That’s the Jara we were missing by and large for most of the first two exhibition games.”
In the end it was a gut-check win for a group that looked determined to change it’s recent history and build off the memory of last season’s disappointing finish. Not just for the group that experienced it first hand, but, according to Sullivan, for the newcomers she affectionately refers to as “little babies.”
“I feel like it’s maturity, but also a lot of us have know what it feels like after the Xavier and the Butler games, and even DePaul earlier last season,” she said. “We know what important games dropped feel like, so when you get to a game like this you don’t want to experience that. And for me I don’t want the younger girls to experience that. … It’s heartbreaking when it happens to you, so you don’t want that to be pushed on to little babies.”
Next up for Creighton is a recovery day before the afternoon home opener on Sunday against Incarnate Word.
“We haven’t played Incarnate Word before, so that’s really exciting to bring it to whole new team,” said Corder. “They know nothing about us. We know nothing about them. Just bring it to them. It’s our home field.”
Kickoff for the 2014 home opener is set for 1:00 p.m. at Morrison Stadium.
Notes: Creighton won for the 59th consecutive time under Bruce Erickson when they score 3 or more goals. … The Bluejays are 75-1 under Erickson and 133-2-2 all-time when scoring 3 or more goals. … Junior Kirstyn Corder now has two multi-goal matches in her Creighton career, including a team-high five game-winners. … Sophomore goalkeeper Danielle Rice recorded her 10th career win, and her six saves moved her into 9th place on Creighton’s all-time saves list with 110. … Creighton now owns a 9-0-1 record all-time against South Dakota State, outscoring the Jackrabbits by a combined score of 22-7 in the 10 matches. … On Sunday, Creighton will attempt to win both their road and home opener for just the third time under head coach Bruce Erickson and first time since 2008.