Oct. 22, 2006
Contact: Brian McCann
Derrek Falor obviously made his point during his halftime speech to the Viking women's soccer on Sunday night at Krenzler Field as CSU used a pair of Shayna Back second half goals to outlast IPFW, 2-1.
Falor challenged his young team to make the second half count and create the scoring opportunities that the Vikings would need to get the win.
"I told them that even though we were trailing and the weather was bad that we could still come back and win if everybody went out and made something happen," Falor said. "We couldn't afford to sit back and let the play come to us. We had to create things."
The Vikings took the halftime speech to heart, applying pressure early on in the second half.
CSU had its best opportunity to get on the scoreboard just 5:34 into the second half when Lisa Conway fed a pass ahead to Back, who broke in all alone on goal. She dribbled past Mastodon netminder Shannon Lynn, but her shot into the empty net was deflected out of bounds by an IPFW defender coming back on the play.
The Vikings tied the match at the 54:09 mark when Lisa Conway fed a pass down the right sideline to Amber Rasmussen, who took one dribble before crossing the ball through the goal box. Back was waiting, one-timing the shot just inside the far post to even the contest.
Back was at it again just 95 seconds later when the nasty weather conditions created an unusual scoring opportunity. Conway served up a free kick from 40 yards out down the right sidelines that should have gone over the end line but the strong northerly wind kept the ball in bounds, blowing it away from the end line and onto the head of Back, who nudged it into the right corner of the goal.
"That was definitely an unusual goal," Falor said. "Those are the kind of plays that have gone against us in the past but we have finally figured out that if you play every ball hard then you will be ready when things like this happen."
The two goals by Back just 95 seconds apart just missed setting a school record for the fastest two goals in program history. In a 6-0 win over Delaware State earlier this year, Ashley Walchack tallied a pair of markers 88 seconds apart.
The Vikings appeared to be headed for their fifth loss in a row when IPFW scored just 2:21 into the match on a beautifully executed breakaway. Nicole Halls played the ball ahead through the CSU defense and Anika Apar ran onto it, blasting a shot from 15 yards out past Viking goalie Ashley Kidwell.
Kidwell, who was making just her second start of the year, settled down after that, making six saves to record her first career victory.
"Ashley did a nice job in goal tonight," Falor said. "We have really been struggling in goal the last couple of matches so I thought that we would change things up a bit and give Ashley a start. She made the most of the opportunity."
The two goals by Back were her school record fifth and sixth of the season while Conway's two assists extended her own school record for assists in a seaso. She now shares the Horizon League lead with six assists this year.
The match was played under miserable weather conditions, beginning under cloudy skies with an air temperature of 43 degrees and a wind chill of 32 degrees. A light rain fell for portions of the first half but things turned worse 15 minutes into the second half when a steady rain began and a swirling wind, reaching as high as 30 mph kicked up, creating problems for each team.
The victory raises CSU's record to 3-15 while IPFW drops to 3-11-1. The Vikings remain at home to close the regular season with a 7:00 p.m. match on Wednesday night (Oct. 25) against Youngstown State.
