Your future, our focus
A strong second-half effort was all head coach Rob Hill wanted.
A last-minute comeback and a renewed hope for the Northwest College women’s soccer team was what he got.
The Trappers scored two goals in the final 10 minutes of play — including the game-winner with nine seconds remaining — to beat Sheridan College 2-1 Wednesday afternoon.
Freshman Emily Sanders snuck her game-winning goal just inside the right post to send the Trappers (1-1) into a frenzied celebration. All that was left was a kickoff before the referee blew the game’s final whistle.
“It made it an exciting finish and it just changed the feel of the team, and I think they’re pretty pumped about that,” Hill said.
Freshman Rachel Orchard scored the equalizer off a corner kick with 10 minutes left in the match.
Northwest won its first regular season game after the previous Saturday’s 6-0 drubbing to Utah State University-Eastern.
Hill said a better energy during practice, and a focus on working as a team, led to the winning effort on Wednesday.
“We had a real good training the day before, and I think that helped,” Hill said. “They recognized the hard work that they put into it. And I did a little bit of an exercise, they realized they were teammates, and I think that clicked with them.”
The increased focus resulted in a performance that was more dominating than the one-goal difference on the scoreboard.
Northwest controlled possession for the majority of both halves, though was not able to capitalize until late in the match.
Hill said the possessions led to some scoring chances that didn’t always result in a shot on goal.
“Rebecca Pratt played a couple real good balls across the box but we weren’t expecting it … and they ended up being more like passes to the goalkeeper than shots,” Hill said.
The Trappers went into the half down 1-0, but unlike their first regular-season match and much of the preseason, the team didn’t let a deficit dictate their will.
“At halftime we kind of talked about those things and I just felt that the best thing was we didn’t quit,” Hill said. “In the previous games, we’ve gone a goal down and the body language changed, and they didn’t do that (Wednesday). They kept plugging away when things weren’t going their way.”
The Trappers’ continued push paid off when Orchard kicked in a corner from the middle of the box. Hill said he had been counting on Orchard to break through.
“We talked about Rachel getting one from the corner, believe it or not,” Hill said.
Orchard’s volley off her foot was the Trappers’ first regular-season goal, and first in more than three hours of play.
“That gave us the push and momentum to get the winner, and sure enough, Emily came up with a good piece of skill to finish,” Hill said.
The Generals were held in check by limited possessions and Northwest’s freshman keeper Raven Johnson.
Johnson was initially questionable with a possible concussion, but was cleared to play.
“It wasn’t really as bad as she thought,” Hill said. “They did the testing on her the next day and she did non-contact and they said she was fine.”
Hill said Sheridan’s lone goal was a well-earned score that Northwest could do little about.
“The goal that we conceded was a really good goal … I don’t think anyone could have saved it,” he said.
Though Johnson was cleared to play, other Trappers are expected to miss time due to injury. Lindsay Irwin is out for two to four weeks with a quad injury, and Sami Heimer’s concussion kept her out for the Sheridan match, and Friday’s match against Western Wyoming (which occurred after press time for the hurry-up Labor Day edition).
Despite those, and other injuries, the Trappers looked like a complete team on Wednesday.
“Even though we were shorthanded, they surprised me, and fought to the end,” Hill said. If there is a silver lining in the Trappers’ health issues, its that their first Region IX road game isn’t until Friday in La Junta, Colorado, against Otero.
“It helps being at home, just not being on the bus,” Hill said. “There’s no right time for an injury, but I’d rather have it when we’re at home.”