Under gray Portland skies and swirling wind on a brisk October afternoon, it took Idaho just three minutes to strike. Sophomore midfielder Hallie Prinos-Grumbach stood over a corner kick on the left side, her breath visible in the cold air. Her service found Sara Rodgers’ head, and the junior midfielder did the rest to give the Vandals the 1-0 lead at Hillsboro Stadium.
The lead lasted 59 minutes before Portland State equalized and held the Vandals to another 1-1 draw, keeping them in third place in the Big Sky Conference heading into the final weekend of the regular season.
Coming off their thrilling 3-2 victory a week ago, Idaho had made the trip up to the coast and into the Rose City to take on the Portland State Vikings, looking to continue their momentum off of Rodgers’ third-minute goal, her team-leading fourth of the season and second in consecutive games.
After the early goal, the Vandals settled into the game and suffocated the Vikings in the first half with their high intensity, putting Portland State on their heels. The Vandals kept the pressure up throughout the half and posted nine shots, six of them on target. The one-sided display was largely due to their dominant midfield.
The Vandals have had a lot of changes in personnel, formations, and styles of play, but the thing that hasn’t changed is their midfield, which has been the engine of the team. The midfield has featured new bodies such as freshman Alyssa Hamilton and senior Karli Yoshida-Williams. Hamilton, a freshman, has been a reliable option and has grown into her own as a player this season.
Yoshida-Williams, a team captain for the Vandals, had struggled to find a place up top, so the coaching staff moved her back to center attacking mid. That move has proven to be a brilliant one, as her recent shift has opened up the midfield and brought a creativity and playmaking ability that they had been missing. Even with all the change, the Vandals midfield has maintained its high quality and has been the backbone of the Vandals’ success this season.
“Our midfield is great. I knew coming in that we were going to have a really good midfield,” Rodgers said post-game against EWU. “Me coming back as a starter is also a good leadership role to help, like, the new ones, either if it’s Halle, Tori, or Karli in there, just talking to each other. I think we have really good chemistry together, even at practice. Just keep on talking to each other, finding each other, making sure we’re talking on the field.”
The Vandals looked to continue their momentum from the first half into the second half and appeared on their way to doing so. However, in the 62nd minute, the Vikings drove inside the Vandals’ goal box on a counterattack and went down. The referee pointed to the spot, and the Vikings had a penalty kick to tie the game.
Senior forward Ocean Rideout converted the penalty, and the Vandals conceded the lead in the second half for the second straight week. The Vandals have been working on their second-half play and playing a complete game, which was a big emphasis coming into the match.
“That’s something we need to mentally switch at halftime,” Rodgers said. “Instead of being like, ‘Oh, we’re up one-zero, we can relax.’ One-zero is not a score we can relax on. I think we need to just come out in, yeah, the same way we start the game, start every game, we need to come out in the second half like that, too.”
After the penalty, the Vandals and Vikings defenses shut the door, and both teams were held to a 1-1 draw.
The Vandals settled for their seventh draw of the season and moved to 5-4-7 overall (2-1-3 in conference). With only two games left in the regular season, the Vandals will look to play 180 minutes, end the season with two wins, and finish the regular season strong.
The Vandals will be back in the P1FCU Kibbie Dome to finish out the regular season. They take on Northern Colorado University on Friday, Oct. 23, at 7 p.m.
Jayden Barfuss can be reached at arg-s[email protected].