Ten minutes remained on the soccer field between the Idaho Vandals and the University of South Dakota Coyotes. The Coyotes were clinging to a one-goal lead, and on a day where almost nothing went right, the Vandals had a few minutes to find an equalizer.
As fate would have it, the moment came down to magic and a crossbar, a familiar enemy of the Vandals. Redshirt sophomore midfielder Payton Oelkers, who had been a bright spot for the Vandals, held the ball up and found junior forward Georgia Whitehead. Whitehead turned her defender and got the ball on her left foot. With the space she created, Whitehead blasted a shot destined for the top left corner.
However, the crossbar had other plans. The ball bounced off the crossbar and was cleared by the Coyotes, sealing the Vandals’ fate as the visitors left the P1FCU Kibbie Dome with a 1-0 victory, dropping Idaho to 2-2-2.
“This game was tough because we hit the crossbar two or three times. It’s frustrating when things like that happen. We should have had at least two goals — it was just a frustrating match overall,” graduate midfielder Annika Farley said.
After a hard-fought match Thursday night against border rivals Washington State Cougars, the Vandals entered Sunday wanting to maintain their momentum. However, they were undermined by self-inflicted wounds and sloppy play for most of the game.
“It was a trap game for us,” head coach Jeremy Clevenger said. “We knew, after having such a great performance with 2,000 people out. We tried as much as we could to tell the players, ‘Hey, you’ve got to get up for this game.’ Credit to them [because] they played tough. I thought it was more our self-inflicted wounds, but they were organized, physical and made it hard. When you play tough teams like that, you have to be sharp, and we weren’t sharp today.”
The Coyotes came out hunting from the first whistle, putting the Vandals under immediate pressure. Idaho didn’t have answers for the early assault. With strong defensive performances from both sides and a lack of quality in the final third, the teams entered halftime scoreless.
Similar to the first half, the Coyotes came out of the break seeking a goal and found one early in the second half.
In the 55th minute, during a scramble for the ball, redshirt freshman forward Klarissa Vega poked the loose ball past redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Paula Flores to give the Coyotes the lead.
The goal awakened the Vandals, who began stringing together nice passing combinations and movements. However, they were unable to pull it together in the final third, dropping their first home game of the season.
Despite the loss and sluggish performance, the Vandals see an opportunity to take lessons from this game and apply them as the season progresses.
The Vandals have dealt with adversity in past years, but with a new group and new voices, they must be ready when adversity strikes again. Farley, one of three captains, is ready for the team to respond and bounce back from the tough loss while showing their brand of soccer.
“[I’m] just emphasizing that every game is going to be like this in conference. There are no easy games,” Farley said. “A lot of teams in the Big Sky are doing really well right now, so we’ve got to step it up if we want to make it to the tournament and do as well as we have in the past.”
The Vandals will get their chance to respond in the final game of their three-game homestand when they host the University of Texas, El Paso on Thursday, Sept. 5, at 7 p.m.
“We’ve just got to get better each day — that’s our main thing,” Clevenger said. “We’ve got three more weeks until the conference starts. We’ve just got to be on it.”
Jayden Barfuss can be reached at [email protected].