Winning big games late in the season is a good way to make sure a Fort Lewis College women’s soccer squad with a strong record isn’t left standing when the NCAA Tournament’s chairs fill up and the music stops again.
The Skyhawks checked a big box off that list Friday.
FLC weathered a lightning delay of more than two hours, an early Metro State push and an early disallowed goal to top the 10th-ranked and previously unbeaten Roadrunners 2-1 on Friday at Dirks Field.
The Skyhawks (12-3-0, 8-3-0 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) got a résumé-building victory thanks to a solid defensive performance up and down the field and timely scoring. Sam Weiss scored on a through ball in the 39th minute, and Emma Cannis added a header off a free kick in the 52nd.
First, however, FLC had to overcome a solid start possession-wise by the Roadrunners (11-1-3, 9-1-1 RMAC), who lead the RMAC in scoring with 36 goals.
“Once we began to compete and win some things in the midfield and run with the ball a little bit and get beyond their pressure, we started to play, started to get comfortable,” FLC head coach Damian Clarke said. “But I don’t know that we were that comfortable until we scored the goal, and then I think we began to look a little bit more like ourselves.”
FLC finally began to turn the tide about midway through the half, and the Skyhawks thought they had the game’s first goal in the 27th minute, when Weiss’ hard charge was denied by an equally hard-charging Karisa Fernandez, the Roadrunners’ goalkeeper. The ball ricocheted right to Shea Haycock, who put the ball in the back of the net, but FLC was whistled for a foul on the play, negating the goal.
The Skyhawks eventually broke through 12 minutes later when Jordan Hix slipped a through ball on the money to Weiss, who finished her well-timed diagonal run by firing a shot from about 17 yards out that froze Fernandez and tucked inside the left post for a 1-0 lead and her eighth goal of the season.
“Sam had a great run. I just happened to get my head up in time,” Hix said. “She cut through the defense, and my ball just happened to get to her, and she had a solid finish.”
Cannis got on the board early in the second half after Metro State was whistled for a foul on the left wing down near the goal line. Haycock’s free kick found the 5-7 forward at the far post, and Cannis outlept her defensive counterpart to head in the Skyhawks’ second goal and her fifth of the year.
“To be honest, it kind of just went right to me,” Cannis said. “The girl in front of me was shorter than me, and it just floated, and I just made good contact with it.”
Metro State added drama to the game’s final seven minutes by trimming the lead in half. Becca Medina’s penalty kick went off the post, but Abby Rolph found the ball in the ensuing scrum and poked it home for her seventh goal of the season.
FLC held off the Roadrunners from there to cap a solid defensive afternoon despite the absence of outside back Nicole Schumacher, who was out with an undisclosed illness. “We’re defending first as a team,” Clarke said. “We’re doing a very good job of defending from the front tier to the midfield four, and obviously the back four are very tough.”
rowens@durangoherald.com
Lightning strikes out men’s soccer game
Weather delays are becoming all too commonplace for the Fort Lewis College men’s soccer side.
For the third time this season, FLC had a game moved because of inclement weather, with the Skyhawks’ game Friday against Colorado Mesa moved to noon Saturday at Dirks Field.
The Skyhawks will have a quick turnaround after Saturday’s game with Colorado Mesa: FLC (8-5-1, 5-5-0 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) will host Metro State at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Dirks Field in a rare case of games on back-to-back days.
heraldsports@ durangoherald.com
