Sept. 14, 2003
Stats
Pocatello, ID--The Idaho State University women's soccer team had probably it's most dominating performance of the season on Saturday, outshooting the University of Idaho Vandals 21-4, but they couldn't take advantage and tied the Vandals, 1-1, on Sunday afternoon at Davis Field.
The consolation in the tie for the Bengals was that they won the Governor's Cup for just the second time in school history. The tie, combined with a 4-0 win over Boise State gave ISU a three-goal differential, compared with UI's 2-1 win over Boise, good enough for the win in the Cup standings.
"It's very nice to win the Governor's Cup back," ISU Head Coach Gordon Henderson. "All three state schools began their programs at the same time. And obviously there's a healthy rivalry and respect for each other. It's always nice to say that on any given year you were the better team in the state."
The Bengals had 21 total shots, including a 12-1 edge in the second half. The first half was a tight affair despite dominating possession by Idaho State. The two teams combined for just six shots and only one on goal.
But from the kickoff of the second half the Bengals took control. Just 6:18 into the period Shawna Park took a pass from Stacey Allen and blasted a shot to the right corner that goalkeeper Kim Carey got her hands on, but couldn't hold and the ball dribbled across the line for the go-ahead goal.
Idaho State continued to put pressure on the Vandals with Park, Allen and Jennifer Loo all getting good opportunities on goal, to no avail. Then the game turned in about 15 seconds. A long punt by Carey went nearly half way into ISU territory. Alyson South took in the ball, then found Emily Nelson. Nelson, the Vandals all-time leader in goals sent a blast into the lower left corner, which skipped in front of the goal, went off ISU goalkeeper Shannon Boyle's hands and just over the line for the equalizer.
After that it continued to be all Bengals, but ISU was unable to finish any of their opportunities. ISU had four corner kicks in the second, seven in the game, as well. Two 10-minute overtime periods failed to produce any scoring, but there were some great opportunities with ISU's Loo and Idaho's Nelson each having good goal-scoring chances.
"I thought that from start to finish we controlled this game," Henderson added. "Our work rate and intensity were phenomenal. You have to credit the University of Idaho for digging deep defensively. There's a huge lesson here, I think, for both teams. For us to control the game as completely as we did, and still come out with a tie, clearly shows that one shot, one mistake, one goal can completely change the context of a game. We had many opportunities to put Idaho away and didn't. All credit to them for keeping themselves in the game. From their standpoint I think that they will take away exactly the opposite. They proved that they by hanging around in a game, good things happen. We're going to need that attitude when we go off to play five very important games before Big Sky play opens up. We go to play a tough Southern Utah team at their home and then play nationally ranked opponents BYU, Utah, Washington State and Washington. I anticipate that we will be the team defending in those games. We need to take the opportunities presented to us, while hanging around in the game. I feel that we are tactically astute enough as a program to do that. That's what good teams' do - play to your strengths and limit your opponents. We will see how it pans out."
Idaho State fell to 3-1-1 on the season with the tie, while Idaho is now 2-2-3. ISU will return to action on Thursday, September 18 at Cedar City, UT, against Southern Utah at 4:00 p.m.
