ISU Bengal

Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: Sports

ISU soccer made for an interesting weekend. The Bengals defeated Montana 1-0 increasing their chances of making the Big Sky tournament. However, ISU followed that up by a 1-0 loss to Eastern Washington making the chances of qualifying for the tournament much more complicated.

ISU came away with a nail-biter win against Montana on Friday afternoon. Just when it looked as though ISU was headed to another overtime game Chelsea Cox scored on a header off a free kick from Annamarie Hofstetter with just over a minute left to play in the game.

Hofstetter picked up her sixth assist of the season on the play and now has 16 career assists for ISU.

On the play Cox was running to her left, spun around and with her back to the goal and body contorted, redirected the kick towards the far post. EWU's Rachel Mayer, 5-10, and Sarah Aspinwall, 5-9, were both in position to block the header from the 5-foot, 3-inch Cox. The EWU defenders failed to block Cox as her air made the height difference irrelevant.

Cox now has four goals on the season, second most for ISU. Although Montana goalkeeper Grace Harris had seven saves on the day, she was unable to stop Cox's header.

"She just never gives up on anything and is fearless in the air," said ISU head coach Allison Gibson, referring to Cox's header. "She really gives us a lift with her play in the air, and she is a target despite usually being smaller than her defenders."

Overall the game was played pretty evenly throughout with ISU controlling most of the first half and Montana controlling a lot of the second half. Montana had several good opportunities in the second half to win the game, but ISU goalie Maren Eves was always right there in the way as the shutout against Montana was Eves third straight.

ISU improved to 6-4-6 on the year and 1-1-3 in the conference.

"This feels just like last year," Gibson said. "This win over Montana might be the kick start to another late season run. Going to Eastern Washington, just knowing we can win games like this, hold off an opponent, and importantly, score, is really going to help us heading out on the road to face Eastern Washington."

This win gave ISU hope to stay in the race for the conference tournament and possibly took away Montana's hopes of qualifying for the Big Sky tournament.

"We just need to continue playing strong defensively, and continue to work hard on finishing," said Gibson.

Continued...

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