The soccer game between the Fort Lewis College women and Western Colorado University on Wednesday was essentially a playoff game to get into the playoffs.
The Skyhawks could secure their place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament with a win or a tie against the Mountaineers. The Skyhawks could still get into the tournament with a loss, but would have needed help from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs against CSU Pueblo later in the night.
The Mountaineers, meanwhile, needed to both beat the Skyhawks and also CSU Pueblo to lose.
Western took a 1-0 lead into halftime, but the Skyhawks found the equalizer in the second half and scored a spot in the postseason with a 1-1 tie.
“This was a match where I felt we outplayed Western, but they got ahead with a great goal that was unsavable,” said head coach Damian Clarke. “I'm happy with the persistent effort from our players to continue getting after it until we found a late answer. So many young players played huge minutes for us today.”
The Mountaineers struck in the 26th minute on a long goal. Caileen Sienknecht took a chance from 35 yards out, firing a towering shot over the hands of Katlyn Rosenbaum to give WCU the early advantage
The Skyhawks responded in the second half, pounding shot after shot on goal until they scored an equalizer on a set piece.
Madyson Barela took it upon herself to rifle a shot from 25 yards out just 11 seconds into play. The shot was saved, but it set the tone for Fort Lewis right away in the half. Sophomore Sabrina Reyes and senior Hannah Paschke followed with a pair of shots on goal, but the keeper remained stout between the pipes.
Fort Lewis’ pressure eventually paid off.
Sophomore McKenna Ford ended up being the hero for the Skyhawks, scoring her first goal of the season in the 81st minute. Sophomore Julia Johnson started the play by centering a corner right into the box. Western’s goalie jumped and got a hand on the ball, but Ford controlled the deflection and scored from close range in traffic to tie the game.
The Skyhawks kept attacking, and sophomore Aubrey Swindle nailed the cross bar in the 83rd minute and then senior Madyson Barela fired a laser that pinged the cross bar in the 84th minute. Western also created some late chances, hitting the cross bar with three minutes to go and then taking a pair of corners.
Senior goalie Katie Dunbabin, however, punched away the second corner and made one more late save to keep Western from scoring in the second half and secure the tie.
The Skyhawks outshot the Mountaineers 22-5 in the game with the defensive efforts of sophomore Elizabeth David and freshmen Rachel Peebles, Cecelia Marlowe and Dannon Yake. Barela led FLC with seven shots while Swindle made an impact all over the field and finished with six shots.
The Skyhawks moved to 6-10-2 overall and 5-6-1 in the RMAC with the tie while Western finished with its best record since 2016 (6-10-2, 4-7-1).
FLC will enter the RMAC tournament as the No. 7 seed and play at No. 2 UCCS (12-2-4, 9-1-2) in the quarterfinals at noon on Sunday. UCCS won the first meeting between the teams, 3-0, on Sept. 18 in Colorado Springs. FLC went 6-1-2 at Dirks Field this season but has yet to win a game on the road.
In other first-round games, No. 1 Colorado School of Mines (13-1-3, 10-0-2) will host No. 8 CSU Pueblo (5-11-2, 4-6-2). No. 3 Regis (10-5-2, 9-2-1) will host No. 6 Colorado Mesa (9-7-1, 7-4-0), and No. 4 Westminster (10-4-2, 8-2-1) will host No. 5 MSU Denver (11-3-4, 7-2-3).
The RMAC semifinals are scheduled for Nov. 2 and the championship will be either Nov. 5 or 6. The higher seeds will host.
