The Idaho women’s soccer team earned part of the Big Sky regular season championship Sunday with a 4-0 win against Southern Utah at a muddy Guy Wicks Field.
Eastern Washington is still up for part of the title.
Idaho challenged Northern Arizona Friday, earning a 2-2 draw in double overtime. The Lumberjacks started the scoring with a goal in the fifth minute. The Vandals responded with a goal from senior midfielder Clara Gomez. Freshman midfielder Emma Eddy brought in the assist.
The game remained tied into the second half as both teams continued to fight for the win.
Northern Arizona took the lead in the 70th minute.
The rest of regulation was a fight to the finish.
In the last 30 seconds of the game, it appeared the Lumberjacks would take the game. Senior defender Amanda Pease guided a corner kick into the net to force overtime.
Both teams failed to score, ending the game in a tie.
Idaho head coach Derek Pittman acknowledged the strengths of the opposing team but was proud of the way his team fought through.
“Their goalkeeper made some huge saves for them today, held on to a lot of stuff in sloppy conditions,” Pittman said in a news release. “But for us to score with five seconds left to send it to overtime just shows our resilience and our mentality to continue fighting no matter what the conditions are.”
Freshman midfielder Emma Eddy came up big in Sunday’s game. Eddy scored two of Idaho’s four goals.
Her first came minutes into the game with an assist from senior midfielder Elexis Schlossarek. Her second goal was in the 50th minute of play with the assist from both Schlossarek and junior forward Olivia Baggerly. The goals put Idaho up 2-0.
Freshman midfielder Myah Merino scored her first collegiate goal off a penalty kick to put Idaho up 3-0.
Freshman midfielder Morgan Crosby capped scoring for the game with a goal off a free kick.
Pittman said he was proud of his team.
“I thought we let up with it a little bit at the end of the first half and that’s what we challenged them with at halftime, to come out and finish the job,” he said. “The intensity, as well as the quality of play, to go ahead and put Southern Utah away. We wanted to make sure we finished them off as soon as we could and we ended up getting a quality shutout and another win at home.”
The Vandals head into their final game of the regular season against Idaho State 3 p.m. Friday at Guy Wicks Field. The Big Sky Tournament starts Nov. 2.
Friday’s game will determine who hosts the Big Sky Tournament.
Meredith Spelbring can be reached at [email protected]