The Blue Demons waited until the very end of double overtime but senior midfielder Ashleigh Goddard was able to score a goal with just over a minute left to lift DePaul to a 3-2 win over Colgate.
“This is a huge win for our team,” head coach Erin Chastain said. “Colgate is really, really good. They play great soccer and their coach has been there for a very long time and has done an outstanding job with their program.”
DePaul got the scoring started early in the 11th minute. A corner kick from Rebekah Roller went into the box and eventually landed at the feet of Gini Yost, who fired the shot in from 20 yards out for the first score of the game. It was Yost’s first goal of the season and it put DePaul up by one goal.
As the match progressed, the teams got more physical. Sarah Coy earned a yellow card after she had a hair-pulling incident in the midfield in the 30th minute, keeping her on caution for the rest of the match. It was the first card of the season for the freshman.
Colgate equalized in the 52nd minute after creating many chances to start the second half. A corner kick sent in by Emily Manoogian found the head of Chelsea Roche. Her header went off the fingertips of DePaul keeper Alejandria Godinez and into the net. It was Roche’s first goal of the season.
DePaul would retake the lead in the 73rd minute off of an unassisted goal from Elise Wyatt. After a Colgate chance in the box, Depaul had a counterattack where a sprinting Wyatt tracked down the ball down the flank right outside the Colgate box. She made a move around a defender and fired a shot far post for the score. It was her fifth goal of the year and the Blue Demons led 2-1.
In the 83rd minute, Demon midfielder Rebekah Roller took down Caroline Brawner in the box, earning a penalty kick for Colgate. Sidney Parodie would convert the penalty kick for the equalizer, her third of the season.
That would be the end of the scoring in regulation as the match went to overtime.
It took until the end, but the Blue Demons finally broke through. A counterattack by the Demons had them two-on-one with the keeper. Kylie Nordness sent the ball through to MaryKate Cincinelli, who drove the ball up the middle and shot it off of the advancing Erin Cummings, where it deflected to Goddard. Goddard shot it into the wide open net and scored the winning goal as the Demons won 3-2.
“I looked up and it was an open goal and I was just thinking ‘don’t kick it over. Get your body over, keep it low and roll it in,'” Goddard said after the game.
Chastain was pleased with her team’s composure in the later minutes, especially on counters.
“We knew when we won the ball there would be some space to attack on the counter,” she said. “Our forwards like to run behind and I think they did a nice job of that.”
The victory moved DePaul to 5-1-1, and they remain undefeated in their past six games. The Blue Demons travel to SMU on Sep. 19 to take on the Mustangs.
Traveling so far away will undoubtedly be a tough task for the Blue Demons, but Chastain has no problem with how it might affect her squad’s psyche.
“[Today’s win was] good for our confidence, Colgate is a top 30 team,” Chastain said.
If the Demons keep playing like this, they won’t need the help.
