Aug. 27, 2006
Contact: Brian McCann
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The day that the Viking women's soccer has been pointing to for the last two seasons finally came on Sunday afternoon (Aug. 27) as CSU scored just five minutes into the contest and continued to pour it on, routing visiting Delaware State, 6-0, at Krenzler Field.
The victory, the first in the history of women's soccer at Cleveland State, snapped a 39-match winless streak that dated back to the formation of the program for the 2004 season. The Vikings had managed just one tie in the stretch.
"This is the day that we have all worked very hard for," head coach Derrek Falor said. "It was a real team effort and what was really nice is that it validated that we are doing things the right way. We've grown over the last two seasons and gotten better, step-by-step.
"We won this match in the manner that we need to play. We controlled the ball at midfield and created opportunities by dominating possession. It's nice that the players can now see that if they trust the system that we can have success."
Junior Shayna Back opened the scoring at the 5:00 mark when she took a pass from sophomore Lisa Conway and rifled a shot past Hornet netminder Casey Murphy from 15 yards out on the left side.
Back extended the lead to 2-0 in the 17th minute, scoring on a nearly identical play, this time taking a cross from junior Heather Clapacs and scoring from 10 yards out. The goals were the first of Back's career, who had spent the majority of her first two seasons playing on defense but is playing at the midfield this year.
Conway, pushed the lead to 3-0 at the 23:10 mark when she capped a long run down the bench sideline by scoring from 10 yards out.
The second half belonged to freshman Ashley Walchack, who set a school record by scoring three times to put the match out of reach.
The first marker came in the 57th minute when she one-timed a cross from Conway. Just 88 seconds later, she ran onto a long breakaway pass from Clapacs and slid the ball past the goalie.
Walchack closed out the scoring in the final minute when she headed home a corner kick from Conway in front of the goal into the right corner of the net.
Sophomore goalie Erin Withrow made five saves in recording her second career shutout.
"Erin did a great job in goal today," Falor said. "She worked well with her defenders to keep things organized and took charge when she needed to."
The offensive explosion allowed the Vikings to set school single match records for goals (6), assists (5), points (17) and shots (25). The six goals is more than half of the 10 goals that the Vikings scored during the entire 2005 season.
The individual records came as well. Walchack's three goal outburst broke the old school record of two markers set by both Ashley Spahn vs Valparaiso last year while Conway became the first player in school history to have more than one assist in a game, finishing with a goal and three assists.
"The two unsung heroes in the match were Abbie Kakias and Amber Rasmussen," Falor said. "The defense really solidified when we moved Abbie to the central defender because she refuses to let people get past her. Amber had a similar impact at center-mid. Those two helped solidify two positions where we have had problems the last two years."
The Vikings have little time to celebrate the victory, returning to action on Monday (Aug. 28) when they play a 4:00 p.m. match at Kent State.
