A perfect athletic Homecoming weekend came to a disappointing end as the Vandal soccer team lost its match against the Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroos on Sunday.
Curtis Ginnetti | Argonaut
Freshman Kavita Battan races a Missouri-Kansas City defender to the ball in a 2-1 overtime Vandal loss on Sunday. Idaho plays at Utah Valley on Friday.
It took overtime to determine the winner when UMKC sealed the victory at the 100th minute mark in a 2-1 victory. A crowd of about 200 came out in the cold and rain to cheer on the Vandals, trying to bring life to the home team in its second contest of the weekend.
The match started in the Vandals favor, who dominated the first half, outshooting the Kangaroos 5-8 and scoring first in the 20th minute. Freshman forward Alyssa Lloyd scored her first goal as a Vandal off of a 30-yard pass from junior midfielder Katie Baran.
“It was just a perfect pass,” Lloyd said. “Just running in there, I could see it coming right for me and it was there for the taking.”
For the rest of the first 45-minute half, the Vandals held the Kangaroos scoreless. The rain started to fall after halftime but a rejuvenated Kangaroos offense was not deterred. The Kangaroos outshot and outscored the Vandals 8-5 in the second half.
Kangaroos’ Taylor Bare scored her first goal of the match in the 75th minute. Idaho goalkeeper Torell Stewart came out from in front of the goal to challenge the ball but she missed the sliding grab leaving an open net. Bare easily put the ball in for UMKC’s first goal of the match.
Neither team was able to break the tie by the 90th minute and the end of regular play, sending the game into overtime.
The domination by the Kangaroos continued through the overtime and into the 99th minute of the match. Bare scored her second goal of the contest off of a shot from 18 yards, putting the ball into the right side of the net.
“We shot ourselves in the foot. We should have killed the game before it got to 1-1,” Idaho coach Pete Showler said. “If we continued playing like we did for (the first) 70 minutes of the game, we would have been fine. But that is something that we will have to figure out.
“We haven’t played one (match) for 90 minutes and that is what we have to do. When we do we will be dangerous,” Showler said.
This loss drops the Vandals’ WAC record to 2-1 and their season record to 2-8.
The team is now getting ready to play three consecutive road games after having a five game home stretch.
“Every game home or away, we have to step on and do our business,” Shower said.
The Vandals will return to Guy Wicks Field on Oct. 18 to play CSU Bakersfield.
Curtis Ginnetti can be reached at [email protected]