Sunday’s match with Northern Colorado had a little bit of everything: a few yellow cards, plenty of shots on goal, late game heroics and everything culminating in a draw.
The Vandals and Bears finished with a 1-1 draw in the Kibbie Dome to close out Big Sky opening weekend.
Idaho tied the game with 12 seconds remaining in regulation from senior forward Juliana deTar after allowing a goal a few minutes earlier.
“Give our girls credit… we never stopped,” Idaho Head Coach Jeremy Clevenger said after the game. “We battled and we got the equalizer and I think we earned it.”
Despite a 0-1-1 record in the Big Sky still looking for a win, Clevenger was not discouraged by Sunday’s final score.
“I think we were the better team today,” Clevenger said. “Conference is always hard, you know games are going to be tight, but we dominated possession, we had the better chances and I’m glad that we at least got the equalizer right before regulation (ended).”
Finding the shots, now convert them: Idaho came out and simply had a different tone Sunday.
From the forwards to the goalkeeper, everyone looked to be on a mission, maybe because they were playing a Bears squad that knocked them out of the Big Sky tournament in 2018.
The best place to see this was on the Idaho attack.
This has been a focal point for Idaho since the start of the non-conference season, looking for better quality shots and converting them into goals.
The Vandals seemingly are trending in the right direction, outshooting the Bears eight to five, the Vandals having four shots on goal, compared to the Bears two.
deTar has been leading the offensive charge, now having two goals in three games, both coming late, helping Idaho avoid losses.
Going into the lone match this Sunday against Eastern Washington, deTar has some clear goals for the team to execute to pick up a win.
“To shut them down early and finish the chances that we have in the first half,” deTar said. “We need to put away all the goals that we can, because we had a few shots in the first half that could’ve gone in, we just didn’t finish.”
Confidence: There is always room for improvement, especially for a young team like Idaho.
But after letting up a goal that came straight off a corner kick to give the Bears the lead with under three minutes left, it looked like the wind had been knocked out of the Vandals’ sails.
But after sophomore midfielder Savannah Foster was able to find deTar on a cross with 12 seconds left, this was a huge stepping stone.
“It’s huge. Huge for us and huge for our confidence for us to be able to get back into games. I would like to have an earlier goal so we can calm down, but I think that will only builds confidence for them and I’m very proud of the fight they had today.” Clevenger said.
Confidence, a mainstay to the philosophy this season, appears to continue to grow and looks to set up the Vandals for success.
Idaho will play Eastern Washington 1 p.m. Oct. 6 in Cheney, WA.
Zack Kellogg can be reached at arg-sports@uidaho.edu or on Twitter @kellogg_zack.