Monday, September 10, 2012

Corban, Carroll win on final night of Red Lion Challenge soccer event

Emily Tsugawa (L) and Katelyn Weaver (C) scored for Corban | Photos: Gerald Barnhart
While the slate of other sports events continues for the Red Lion Challenge between the NAIA’s Cascade Collegiate Conference and Frontier Conference, the soccer portion of the first-year series based in Spokane came to a close Saturday evening with Corban University and #23 Carroll College posting fairly easy victories in women’s soccer against the University of Great Falls and Eastern Oregon University.

Corban’s victory proved to be the only one on behalf of the CCC in eight men’s and women’s matches as the Frontier’s Montana contingent dominated in the win column.

Corban University 4 :: 2 University of Great Falls

For the second consecutive night the Argonauts found themselves down two goals, and Corban was off to a quick start. It took the Warriors nine minutes to score in what ended up being a 2-1 loss to Carroll Friday. It took only 22 seconds Saturday. Emily Tsugawa sent a ball behind the defense that left Terrika Weaver in a one-on-one with the keeper that she buried for the lead. Seven minutes later Weaver turned provider, releasing a three ball past the back line to her season, Katelyn, who also beat Jocelyn Morris to double the advantage.

Castillo struck off a corner
Great Falls, who rallied the night before for a literal last-minute 3-2 victory against Eastern Oregon, launched their bid for another rally in the 27th when Mayra Castillo scored directly off the corner kick with a ball that curled into the far upper right corner.

“We just try to do it the hard way and dig ourselves a hole and see what we can do in the second half and scramble back,” said Great Falls head coach Brian Clarke. “I’m proud of the girls; they didn’t quit. They could have really easily being down three-one and they fought hard today to come back. We probably should have had an opportunity at 3-3 and it just didn’t go our way.”

Corban restored the two-goal lead before the half though with Tsugawa converting a penalty kick in the 37th minute. Great Falls would get a penalty of their own in the 69th minute, converted by Kayelyn Swart, and would put a lot of pressure on the Corban defense in the late stages of the contest. The Argos committed fully to the attack, leaving themselves vulnerable to several counters that Morris dealt with superbly until the final minute when Audrey Sullivan chipped the ball over Morris with just under a minute left on the clock. 

“We needed that because they had some opportunities to really put the game out of reach,” Clarke said of Morris outstanding defensive stops in the second half. “She did a great job at keeping us in the game, coming off her line and making some big stops late in the game.

“We gotta just really concentrate on starting the first 15 minutes of every game better and not try and work ourselves a hole and climb out of it. That’ll be the big thing going forward. The girls show potential. They just got to start believing in it. If they do that I think we’ll have a great season.”

Eastern Oregon University 0 :: 4 Carroll College

After the heartbreaking loss the night before, it was a tough task for the Mountaineers in facing the nationally ranked Saints. Two goals in the first 15 minutes from the #23 NAIA team in the NSCAA poll did not help.

“We both play a 4-3-3 so we knew that there was going to be a chance to have some good match-ups, and we play against a 4-3-3 in practice every day so we were hoping we’d have a good day,” said Carroll head coach David Thorvilson. “We just move the ball really well. We got it back on the ground and our movement up front caused a lot of problems for them and we scored some great goals.”

A corner kick four minutes into the match found its way out to Paige Williams, who fired from 40 yards out past goalkeeper Kailey Moss. The Saints doubled the lead in the 15th minute when a rebound fell to Kristyn Bohlander for the finish. Carroll would continue to dominate the half and keep the Mountaineers from sending a shot the way of Erin Volz between the pipes at the other end.

“Kristyn Bohlander is a freshman for us out of Tri-Cities, Washington and she scored the second goal and started today – got her first collegiate goal and first collegiate start. She was just very technical and very fast; caused some problems for their defense and it was nice to see her come in and I think it puts a little pressure on some of our upper classmen that realize they can’t just settle into their spots either.

“Cassie Baldwin, a freshman for us out of the Portland area, also scored the last goal for us today. Just the pace and decision making – was very excited to see freshmen come in and have that composure on the ball,” Thorvilson said of players that led the way on the night.                                                                                                                                             

Any hopes of a comeback by Eastern Oregon coming out of the intermission were dashed with immediacy by Carroll when Haley Jensen flicked the ball over Moss less than a minute into the second half. Jensen would later deliver a cross along the endline in the 64th minute that was first-timed for the final tally of the night by Cassie Baldwin.

“We still got two more weeks before we jump into conference play, but we’re excited at where we’re at,” Thorvilson said. “We’re actually getting ready to head to California next week and play two more games on this field turf so I’m excited to get a good game and play well on this stuff getting ready for two more games, then we start to get ready for conference.

“Biola is going to be very good and San Diego Christian is going to be good. To be honest with you, if you can recruit out of California in your back, you’re gonna hope you can find some athletes.”

Women:  Day 1 - Men:  Day 3  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 1  |  SOCCER PREVIEW  |  EVENT OVERVIEW