Seven minutes before halftime, senior forward Karli Yoshida-Williams was bearing down on goal, looking to break the deadlock against the stingy Montana Grizzlies. Yoshida-Williams used her pace to race away from the Grizzlies’ back line and was now one-on-one with redshirt junior goalkeeper Ashlyn Dvorak.
Yoshida-Williams fired a shot heading into the goal, but Dvorak went low and made a kick save followed by a rebound save to keep the Vandals off the scoreboard, preserving the 0-0 battle that would last the full 90 minutes.
Coming off a three-game road stand and a dominating 2-0 win over Sacramento State on Thursday, Oct. 2, the Idaho Vandals came in motivated and confident to snap a two-game losing streak to the Grizzlies.
Montana, the back-to-back regular season Big Sky champions, have been a great team again this season. The Griz improved to 7-3-3 (1-1-2) with the draw.
From the first whistle, the Vandals went on the attack, using their aggressive mindset to pin the Grizzlies in their defensive third for most of the first half. Idaho controlled the tempo and flow of the game, creating opportunities and putting the Griz under pressure.
After the save by Dvorak on Yoshida-Williams, the Vandals and Griz played out the final minutes of the first half and took a 0-0 draw to the locker room. Idaho outshot Montana 6-4 and were the better team over the first 45 minutes.
“The first half we came out super strong, and they weren’t ready for us,” graduate midfielder Annika Farley said. “We had a lot of opportunities to tuck the game away and win, but we didn’t tuck away those opportunities.”
Once the whistle blew for the second half, the Grizzlies started to get a foothold in the game, and a big part was senior midfielder Chloe Seelhoff.
Seelhoff, a Snohomish, Washington native, has been outstanding for the Griz this season, scoring seven goals and dishing out four assists. She has been the backbone of the Grizzlies’ team so far this season.
Seelhoff was all over the field, playing everywhere in the midfield and forward lines as the Grizzlies looked for an offensive rhythm, which led to a couple of early opportunities.
In the 53rd minute, the Vandals, under a lot of pressure, cleared the ball right to senior midfielder Maddie Ditta, who struck the ball toward the bottom corner. Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Paula Flores tipped the ball off the crossbar and kept the game scoreless.
The pace of the first half began to wear on the Vandals, and their sharpness faded as the Griz had more of the opportunities in the second half.
The final minutes were wary for Idaho, and a poor clearance put the shutout in jeopardy. In a race to the ball, Seelhoff got behind the Vandal defense and was in on goal. She turned her body and fired a rocket that Flores saved, preserving the shutout until the final whistle blew.
“It was tough, and they have some really good players too. So, I made sure that I was locked in when I was on offense, always in the back of my mind,” Farley said. “We had to make sure to think about the transition because they’re a huge transition team, especially with the long punch. So always being ready for that was a tough mental battle.”
“In the second half, I think we kind of deviated from the plan and weren’t holding up the ball and making silly mistakes,” Farley said. “We were basically giving the ball back to them. We made our lives a lot harder we were holding on to the shutout rather than trying to score.”
The Vandals have struggled to put away chances. After getting two past Sacramento State and creating some good opportunities this game, the Vandals remain confident in their ability going forward.
“I would be scared of our front line if I was a back line,” junior forward Georgia Whitehead said. “We’re fast, we’re dynamic. They held us, we didn’t back down from any fights. We need to keep taking those chances. It’s going to click for us here soon.”
With the draw, the Vandals move to 4-4-6 (1-1-2) and will have a week to rest and prepare to host the Eastern Washington Eagles next Sunday, Oct. 13, at 1 p.m.
“The main thing for us [is] we want to get a couple days of rest, and we want to get back after it, and make sure that we’re sharp in our game plan,” head coach Jeremy Clevenger said. “We want to execute once the team knows what they’re up we’ll make sure they know how to go forward, how to attack, how to do those things. And as always, we want to make sure we’re clean and organized on defense.”
Jayden Barfuss can be reached at arg-s[email protected].