Despite a dominant performance in the first 45 minutes, Ross Paule’s Creighton women’s soccer team didn’t get a goal to show for it and thus had to survive a hectic first few minutes of the second half to earn a 2-1 win on the road against the South Dakota State Jackrabbits.
The Bluejays, who improved to 3-1-2 on the season, out-shot South Dakota State (2-3-1) by a margin of 10-1 in the first half, but fell behind 1-0 just 49 seconds into the second period on a goal by Jackrabbit junior midfielder Jennie Scislow. Her header on the far post run was just the second shot of the match, and the first on frame, by South Dakota State.
“In the first half we completely dominated the game from the movement of the ball to the defensive shape, and we had plenty of chances to score the goals but didn’t put those chances away,” Paule said.
“We knew South Dakota State was going to come out and go very direct and put us under as much pressure as possible, and they did that and got a goal early in the half. That was disappointing, but our response to that was not to quit; it was to fight.”
The Jackrabbits’ lead only lasted 101 seconds before Creighton senior forward Lauren Sullivan drove home the game-tying goal in the 48th minute. Off a set piece, freshmen Jaylin Bosak and Kate Johnson got the ball to their go-to goal scorer with one header right after the other until the ball found Sullivan’s foot, which she then snuck inside the near post to even things up.
The goal was the second of the season, and 22nd of her career, for Sullivan, who needed it probably just as much as her team did after missing a penalty kick in the 87th minute of Friday’s 1-1 draw against Kansas State. Her head coach said he could tell that his star player might have carried over some of that frustration from Friday’s match, but he believes she might have shaken it off with her performance against on Sunday afternoon.
“I could tell that she was a little hesitant in the beginning and played a little bit afraid to make a mistake, but she played herself into the game,” Paule said. “She is one of those players that you have to have on the field as much as possible, because she can create goals out of nothing.
“The key for her is for us to keep her positive, because she is very hard on herself. That’s a good thing, but there comes a point where you just have to believe that the next shot is going to go in. Today she did that. She had a couple chances in the first half, kept fighting, and she got a goal because she stayed in it. I think she’s going to gain confidence from that. She takes it hard when she doesn’t finish the chances, because she knows she can, so it was very positive for her to get that goal.”
Creighton didn’t let up after tying the match, either, as the eventual game-winning goal came just 54 seconds later when freshman midfielder Taryn Jakubowski notched her first career goal as Bluejay. Sullivan started the sequence with a drive down the right flank. She played the ball in and Jakubowski finished it off with a shot into the upper left corner of the goal to give her team a 2-1 lead with 41:36 left on the game clock.
Jakubowski entered the match with seven shots on goal this season, tied with fellow freshman Hannah Miller for most on the team, but still had yet to find the back of the net in five matches entering Sunday.
She got into the stat sheet with a big one against South Dakota State, and Paule thinks this is only the beginning for the Illinois native.
“Taryn to me has been one of our star players,” he said. “She’s has been very special on the ball, around the box, and is very dangerous. It was a beautiful goal from her.
“She puts in the complete effort. She has proven to be a complete player for us right now — fighting on the defensive side and doing very well on the attacking side while keeping possession. I see her as a player for us that is only going to get better, and I do think she’ll create many more goals and score many more goals in her career at Creighton.”
South Dakota State hunted that equalizer over the final 40 or so minutes. They produced a 5-3 advantage in shots after Jakubowski’s go-ahead goal, but hitting a cross bar and a post was as close as they would come to finding the back of the net for a second time.
Though his team ended up on their heels more than he would prefer in the second half, Creighton’s second-year head coach saw his players do enough good things overall to build on before returning to the pitch next Friday at Morrison Stadium against South Dakota.
“It was one of those games where you’re on the road, under a lot of pressure, and the girls responded very well,” Paule said. “That’s something that we can build on. We’ve struggled on Sundays, but overall today we were a very good team, and we got a lot of positives out of it that we can build into next Friday.”