With barely a minute to go, Wisconsin midfielder Lindsey Johnson took the throw-in. She accelerated, flipped over and then with all her resulting momentum flung the ball toward the goalie’s box. Northwestern tried to clear it, but Wisconsin’s Erin Jacobsen took control of the ball outside the box and fired it into the upper-right corner of the net, just over the outstretched hand of Wildcats keeper Carolyn Edwards.
That strike proved to be the knockout blow Monday night as the Badgers defeated the Cats 2-1 at Lakeside Field.
“It’s brutal. You know you’re in the game, and to give up a goal with one minute left, you don’t give yourself a lot of time to get back in it,” coach Stephanie Erickson said. “It’s been a trend for us all year. We have to get better at (finishing).”
Johnson wowed fans all game with her flip-throw, but it wasn’t about style points. The flip allows Johnson to throw the ball farther than other players, often putting the ball in the goalie’s box on the fly.
“(The flip-throw) puts you under pressure; it puts the ball right in front of your goal,” Erickson said. “Soccer is about getting good clearances and defending your box and we didn’t do that in the last minute.”
Wisconsin (9-5-5, 5-1-4 Big Ten) took the lead in the 15th minute when Badgers forward Laurie Nosbusch passed to fellow forward Paige Adams in the right side of the box. Adams took a low shot towards the left side of the net that rolled just beyond the reach of a diving Edwards.
NU (6-10-2, 3-5-1 Big Ten) tied it less than ten minutes later, when senior midfielder Alicia Herczeg took a cross pass from sophomore midfielder Caroline Dagley and kicked it to the left side of the goal.
“I got a lot of chances,” Herczeg said. “I thought our forward line was working pretty well. We opened up a lot of space for each other, and I was just able to convert one.”
Herczeg took three of Northwestern’s eight shots Monday, including two shots on goal. She has scored six of the Cats’ 14 goals this season. Her goal Monday put her in a ninth-place tie with Jill Dunn for the most goals in Northwestern women’s soccer history.
“That was one of her most dynamic games off the ball,” Erickson said. “You can’t say enough about her. She was all over the place.”
Monday’s game was as much about the battle as it was about the goals, as the two teams combined for four yellow cards and 21 fouls, including 12 fouls by NU.
“We knew we had to battle, and we did a great job winning 50-50 balls,” senior defender Ali Rubnitz said. “It was definitely one of our more physical games that we played, but that’s what you get in the Big Ten.”
After two straight wins against Michigan State and Iowa, the Cats have lost two straight in the final minutes. NU put up an impressive effort in Minnesota (11-5-3, 4-3-2) Friday, holding one of the conference’s most powerful offenses scoreless for all of regulation, but ultimately fell 1-0 in overtime.
The Cats outshot the Golden Gophers 7-4 in the first half, but Minnesota’s defense was able to block most of NU’s shots before they made it to the keeper. In the second half, the Cats struggled to contain the Gophers’ high-octane offense. Minnesota outshot NU 7-2 in the second half, and notched six corner kicks, but was unable to score, which forced overtime.
The Cats had a chance in overtime, when junior midfielder Jennifer Baumann put a shot high on net that Minnesota goalkeeper Cat Parkhill was just able to hold. Four minutes later, defender Kylie Kallman ended it for the Gophers, picking up a free kick from forward Katie Bethke and deflected it into the net for the game-winner.
After losing two winnable games, the Cats will be playing for pride in their final game Friday against Illinois.
“It’s definitely disappointing, because we give a hard effort, and then to let it go in the last five minutes or in overtime is very tough, but we’ll rebound,” Herczeg said. “We’ll recover mentally and physically, and get ready for Illinois.”[email protected]
