FAYETTE, Iowa – The Concordia University soccer team dropped its season opener Friday afternoon to Maryville University 3-2 in overtime. The Golden Bears start the Peacock Classic, hosted by Upper Iowa University, with a loss and will continue play Saturday at 2:30 p.m. against Southwest Baptist University.
Maryville's Sam Poteet started the scoring at the 39:23 mark in the first period with an unassisted goal, beating the keeper from in front.
Just over 13 minutes passed until
Amanda Olsen (Cottage Grove, Minn. ) scored the Golden Bears' first goal of the game and season to knot the score at one apiece.
Sarah Pieper (New Brighton, Minn. ) assisted the goal as Olsen found the back of the net on a header. The score remained 1-1 at the half.
At the 24:58 mark in the second, Olsen gave CU its first lead with the help of
McKenzie Buck (Hudson, Wis.). The goal was scored from the left side to the back right of the net.
Maryville tied the game 1:56 later, though, on a goal by Jung Jen assisted by Mandy Rood. Neither team could find the back of the net in the remainder of regulation and the game was sent into overtime.
Nearly eight minutes of scoreless overtime action passed until Alex Reis recorded the game-winner for Maryville, assisted by Hana McGinis.
“We had enough chances to wrap the game up but we move on and look forward to tomorrow's game,” head coach
Steven Bellis said.
Concordia keeper
Kayla Kuczaboski (Vadnais Heights, Minn. ) suffered the loss after marking one save with three goals allowed. Her counterpart, Jena Casagrande, notched five saves with two goals against.
“We had nice performances from
Kate Fox (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) in the midfield and
McKenzie Buck at forward – both showed the potential they've shown all the way through preseason,” Bellis continued. “I'm really excited to see what they can do for the future. We escaped without any injuries, which is always a plus. It was a game we should have put out of reach in the opposition but we will learn valuable lessons from it.”
