INW Collegiate Recap: Eastern Washington, Montana in hunt in wide open conference

A rough weekend on the road for Northern Colorado, who narrowly fell in Montana and finished scoreless at Eastern Washington, opened the door for Portland State and Sacramento State, who each posted a big win and a scoreless draw on the road to create a group of three at the top of the conference table with one loss on the season. The conference, though, is still wide open as Northern Arizona still only has one loss, and four others have only suffered two defeats. 



Friday

Cassie Black, EWU

North Dakota 1 :: 4 Eastern Washington
After falling behind in the 18th minute, the Eagles needed less than a minute to answer back through leading scorer Cassie Black, who netted the first hat-trick of her collegiate career. The two sides remained in a stalemate for about 45 minutes before Black gave Eastern the lead off a feed from Haley Stading, who would create the third goal for the Eagles as well in the 82nd minute with a shot that was blocked by a defender, falling to Black for the putaway. Black is now tied for second in single-season goal scoring with Whitney Brannan (2010) with eight strikes, trailing Britney Sparks (2009) by three goals with three games remaining. A corner from Danielle Jones found Caitlin Hepworth in the 86th minute to cap the game. – MORE  
 
Northern Colorado 0 :: 1 Montana
The Grizzlies handed the Northern Colorado its first conference loss of the season with a late strike from Allie Simon, who put away a cross from Tyler Adair in the 77th minute. Kristen Hoon posted four saves for the clean sheet. – MORE  

Portland State 0 :: 0 Northern Arizona

Sacramento State 3 :: 1 Southern Utah

Saturday
Idaho State 0 :: 1 Weber State
In a closely fought contest, the Bengals came up short on the road with the Wildcats finding a winner in the 75th minute when a free kick from Brecken Holbrook found Mackenzie Harrison for the deciding strike. – MORE
 
Sunday
Northern Colorado 0 :: 0 Eastern Washington
Facing one of the league’s top contenders, the Eagles posted a shutout with Jamie Walker making a season-high 11 saves for her first shutout of the year. Her biggest saves came in overtime, where she came up with a critical save on a JJ Wykstra penalty kick midway through the first overtime session. – MORE  

North Dakota 0 :: 4 Montana
The Grizzlies completed their home slate unbeaten in a co-record program low five games (3-0-2), finishing things off in fine fashion with a big win against UND. The match got off to a slow start with the hosts tallying just once as Mackenzie Akins was the beneficiary of the visiting goalkeeper mishandling the ball in the 28th minute. Erin Craig (Great Falls, MT) played a key role in putting the match out of reach, sending a shot off the post on the hour mark that Paytyn Wheeler put in off the rebound. Fifteen minutes later she delivered a cross that Simon finished from seven yards for her second goal of the weekend. With six minutes left Mary Makris (Emigrant, MT) chipped the keeper from 20 yards out.  – MORE  

Portland State 3 :: 0 Southern Utah
Torie Morris (Bend, OR) headed in a corner kick in the 24th minute for the lone goal of the first half on the first of two assists of the night for Amanda Dutra.

Sacramento State 0 :: 0 Northern Arizona

Standings [+]  

Coming Up Next Week

Friday
Weber State @ Sacramento State – 1:30
Idaho State @ Portland State – 3:00
Montana @ Eastern Washington – 3:30
Southern Utah @ Northern Colorado – 7:00
Northern Arizona @ North Dakota – 7:00
Sunday
Southern Utah @ North Dakota – Noon
Northern Arizona @ Northern Colorado – Noon
Weber State @ Portland State – 1:00
Idaho State @ Sacramento State – 1:00