University of Minnesota Athletics
Golden Gophers Down Drake 3-0 in Season Opener
8/26/2006 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
The University of Minnesota soccer team opened the 2006 season with a 3-0 victory over Drake on Friday night at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium. In her first career start, Lindsey Dare made 12 saves to record the shutout. Lindsey Schwartz had a goal and two assists on the night, with Minnesota’s other goals coming from Kaitlin Wagner and Elena Fruci.
The Golden Gophers came out looking to attack immediately and in the seventh minute of the contest, Wagner put the Gophers on the board. Schwartz started the play with a pass to Wagner on the right side. Wagner then shook her defender and fired a hard angle shot to beat Drake goalkeeper Jenny Schroeder, giving Minnesota an early 1-0 lead.
Fruci extended the Gophers’ lead in the 32nd minute, with Schwartz again starting the play. After the Gophers recovered the ball on defense, Schwartz tipped a pass to Clare Grimwood on the left side. Grimwood served up a long pass from beyond the midfield to a streaking Fruci on the right side. Fruci then put on a nice dribbling display to beat her defender and fired a shot from 10 yards out to beat a diving Schroeder, putting Minnesota up 2-0. The goal was the first of Fruci’s career.
In the 48th minute, Schwartz put the game out of reach for the Bulldogs, scoring on a long ball from 25 yards out. It initially appeared as if Drake goalkeeper Erin Jarvis, who replaced Schroeder in the second half, had made the save. Jarvis stretched to tip the ball up, but it deflected behind her and off the right post into the goal to give Minnesota the 3-0 advantage. On the play, Grimwood nothched her second assist of the night for the Golden Gophers.
Dare and the Minnesota defense buckled down in the final portion of the game to secure the victory.
The Gophers will look to sweep the weekend when they face North Dakota State on Sunday at 1 p.m., at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium. Live video of the match will be available in the Gold Zone which is the premium site for content at Gophersports.com.
Post-game quotes
Head coach Mikki Denney Wright
On the play of Elena Fruci in her first game:
“The thing about Elena is that she has worked so hard in the offseason. She’s a kid that spends an hour with the ball every day and watches soccer all the time. She has put in the time over the last year. She’s developed into an unbelievable player over the last year. She’s taken it as an opportunity to get better. No one has worked harder than Elena, so she deserves everything that comes to her.”
On the play of the entire sophomore class:
“All of them were phenomenal – Clare Grimwood, Kaitlin Wagner, Kelsey Hood, Lindsey Schwartz, Marti Klinsing – they all had a big impact for us. They just have more experience under their belt – they’re not freshmen anymore. Each of them have gotten so much better.”
On the play of Lindsey Dare in her first career start:
“She’s another player who has been in our program the last two years and has just developed. She’s put in all the time, all the work and all the effort and it has paid off for her. It’s a tribute to her and her work ethic. She was terrific today. It’s fun to watch a kid develop like that throughout her career and she also deserves everything that comes to her.”
On where the team goes from here:
“There are small details in our system that we still need to iron out and work on. Defensively there are still a couple of things we need to iron out, but our composure to kill the game was excellent. That’s something we didn’t have last year and this helps our confidence. Our kids are still so young and we don’t have one senior on the field, so this really helps our confidence.
“I’m proud of our kids. They put in a lot of time over the last week to improve and they’ve done that. We improved so much from last week to this week. If we can do that every week we can be a very solid team this year.”
