University of Minnesota Athletics
Spartans Come Back to Beat the Gophers
10/25/2009 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
East Lansing, Mich. - The University of Minnesota soccer team saw their 1-0 second half lead slip away this afternoon (Oct. 25), as host Michigan State answered with two goals in less than a 90 second span for the 2-1 win.
After a scoreless first half, Minnesota (10-5-3, 3-3-2) was first to break through in the second when Tamara Strahota (Burnsville, Minn.) scored for the second straight game. Strahota was carrying the ball up the field wide, and as she converged on the goal she had the defender beat.
Teammate Shari Eckstrom (Champain Park, Minn.) was also streaking on goal, attacking the center of the net. Seeing her, Strahota fired off a crossing pass, but before it could get to Eckstrom, a Michigan State defender got in the way and defleted the pass into the goal. The deflected shot for a goal gave the Gophers a 1-0 lead at the 58:54 mark.
The score was Strahota's fifth of the season, matching her mark as a freshman last season.
Michigan State (9-3-4, 2-3-2) evened the score not long after when their Laura Heyboer created an opporunity deep in the Minnesota zone. Heyboer fired off a point-blank shot that was stopped by the Gophers' Cat Parkhill (Apple Valley, Minn.). The deflection was left rolling along the goalline and before Parkhill could recover for the second save, the Spartan's Megan Pines tapped it in. Parkhill scrambled to the loose ball and was just able to get a hand on it, but it was not enough as Pines came charging in.
After tying the game at 71:10, Michigan State took the lead at 72:38, when Heyboer again took center stage. She managed to split the Gopher defense and dribble around the last defender before firing off the shot for the game winner.
It was the first time the Gophers had allowed multiple goals since their 2-2 tie to Illinois nearly one month ago. The loss was the third in four games for Minnesota, despite again outshooting their opponent. The Gophers held a 15-to-13 advantage in shots at the end of the match and finished tied in shots on goal at 7-to-7. Minnesota held a big lead in corners, taking five in the match compared to just one for Michigan State.
Minnesota will now return home for their final two matches begining with Northwestern on Oct. 30 at 7:00 p.m. With just the one match on the docket for the Gophers this week, they will close the regular season the following Friday, on Nov. 6, with a 7:00 p.m. tilt with Indiana. Conference positioning, a possible playoff berth, and a second straight winning record in the Big Ten still lay ahead for the Gophers as they close out the 2009 campaign. Minnesota has not posted consecutive winning records in the Big Ten since the 1998 and 1999 seasons. 1999 was the cap to six straight above .500 seasons in Big Ten play.
