Seward, Neb. – Coming off back to back losses, the Concordia Women’s Soccer team looked to turn things around on Saturday at Bulldog Stadium. The Bulldogs did just that as junior Mikeila Martinez led a furious comeback to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 overtime victory.
Head Coach Thomas Goines’ squad has now improved to 4-3 overall and 4-2 in GPAC play. Goines credits the Bulldogs victory due to the team’s persistence in playing their style and pace.
“I think you can lay this win on the heavy word belief,” Goines said. “That was our theme for the match. We believe what we do and that our playing style wins games. It had been a rough string of matches recently as we were not finding the results we wanted. I told the girls to stay with their style and don’t try to play other teams’ styles because that is not our match.”
Jamestown got on the board first in the contest with a goal from Kirstyn Aldridge in the 15th minute of play. Jamestown became very close to taking a 2-0 lead early in the second half; however, the Bulldogs made a great defensive play, deflecting the Jimmies shot out of bounds. Concordia had a goal erased in the 51st minute of play when officials ruled that senior Michaela Twito was offside.
Things were looking bleak for the Bulldogs as they were trailing 1-0 with just 10 minutes left in the match. However, the Bulldogs and Martinez would not be denied. Concordia tied things up when Martinez snuck one past the Jimmies keeper in the 85th minute with the assist coming from Sydney Ross. The Bulldogs held the Jamestown the rest of regulation to force overtime. Just four minutes into overtime, Martinez found the back of the net off a pass from sophomore Grace Soenksen, making the Bulldogs walk-off winners.
Martinez doubled her season goal total as she came into the match with two goals on the season. Martinez breakout performance could be attributed to her taking a new role in the Bulldogs game plan, which was designed to help in the final third of the match.
“We challenged her considerably today because we don’t feel like we were doing well enough in the final third,” Goines said. “She is a talented player that obviously has a good shot but also has the tendency to find a pass. We pushed her a little higher up and told her we needed her more involved on the offensive side of the game. It might have been a little out of her comfort zone, but you can’t say much more because she played a great game.”
Overall, the Bulldogs tied the Jimmies 8-8 in shots while Jamestown outnumbered Concordia on shots on goal by the slight margin of 4-3. Senior goalkeeper Lindsey Carley recorded three saves and allowed one goal in 91 minutes and 38 seconds of game time.
The Bulldogs will be back in action on Wednesday to visit the College of Saint Mary (1-2-1, 1-2-1 GPAC) for a 3 p.m. CT kickoff. The Flames have not been in action as of late due to COVID-19 affecting their schedule.