In regulation, in overtime, at home, on the road – the story for the Skyhawks has been the same: ride a quality defensive effort and a barrage of shots until the breakthrough comes.
Friday’s trip to the win column didn’t deviate from the well-worn course.
The No. 7 Fort Lewis College women’s soccer team moved its scoreless streak to five consecutive games and got a goal from Sam Weiss with 2 minutes, 43 seconds left in double overtime to top Regis 1-0 in FLC’s home and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opener.
FLC (5-0-0, 1-0-0 RMAC) had numerous chances to break through before the golden goal came in double overtime for the third time this season. Megan Striedel played in Courtney Riley, and the freshman stayed poised and slipped a pass on the money to Weiss, who got inside a defender and slid a shot underneath the hard-charging Ellen Augsburger to keep FLC’s record unblemished.
“I just kind of turned it and played Sam across, and she got a touch past the last defender and put it in,” said Riley, who played 67 minutes off the bench, helping to spell Weiss and Emma Cannis, who both dealt with injuries for stretches.
Weiss wasn’t sure she had enough in the tank to still be on the field at that point. She spent time on the trainers’ table in the first half, seemingly in a fair amount of pain, before returning off the bench in the second half. Fortunately for FLC, she had enough to fight through and remain on the field to be in the right place in the right time.
“Honestly, for that, I put that all on Damo (head coach Damian Clarke), because I’d come off from regular time going into overtime, and I said, ‘I don’t know if I can do it,’” Weiss said. “‘I can give you one overtime,’ and I said, ‘Give me the second.’ He said, ‘Give me the first.’ I fought through that and came off again, and he said, ‘You’re going to get the game winner.’”
FLC nearly had a winner in the waning seconds of the first overtime. Ashley Kniffen came from her spot on defense with a full head of steam and got every bit of a volley off a corner kick, but Augsburger was up to the task, getting herself fully extended to keep the game alive.
The Skyhawks had several other chances go awry, finishing with a 20-9 edge in shots and a 10-2 edge in shots on goal. The two best came when Riley had a volley land in Augsburger’s stomach in the 89th minute, and Nicole Schumacher had a free kick from just inside midfield tipped off the bar by Augsburger, who made another save in the ensuing scramble in the 42nd minute.
Those efforts were set up by a strong tic-tac-toe passing attack that showed up for long stretches Friday at Dirks Field.
“For us, that’s the best we’ve played up to this point, and doing it against the best opponent that we’ve played is a huge step in the right direction,” Clarke said.
Regis (2-2-0, 0-1-0 RMAC), playing without injured forward Sade Akindele, nearly broke through on a couple of occasions before dropping its second consecutive game in double overtime.
FLC goalkeeper Caitlyn Espinosa, the reigning RMAC Defensive Player of the Week, made a nice tip save off the crossbar on a salvo from Sid Otto, coincidentally the last player to score on FLC (in 2012), in the 73rd minute.
The rest of the game, the FLC defense held, from the goalie up. The scoreless streak now sits at 524 minutes, 21 seconds heading into Sunday’s home game with N.M. Highlands.
“I thought the back four was just huge (Friday). ... When those four kids are loud and communicating, they keep the entire team connected,” Clarke said. “The other piece of that back four is we always forget that defending starts with two forwards. ... We made things predictable for the midfield, and if we make things predictable for the midfielders, the back four are going to have a much easier day, and they dominated.”
rowens@durangoherald.com
