MILWAUKEE – In an overtime shootout, the Mount Mary University Soccer Team lost 5-4 against visiting MacMurray. The Highlanders are now an even 2-2 on the season, while the Blue Angels are now 2-4 on the 2016 campaign.
Both teams piloted high octane offenses in the first half. The Highlanders capitalized off three quick goals, all from Lyndi Saccaro. From eight minutes after the first whistle, to the 19 minute mark, Saccaro used her speed to place the quick hat-trick for her club and appeared to deflate the Blue Angels defense simultaneously.
"This was a wild game for us, I thought we started slow and MacMurray came out and put us under pressure. They [MacMurray] finished well…" Mount Mary Head Soccer Coach Jon Gulrajani added, "I give our girls a ton of credit we buckled down in [the] defensive third and chipped at the lead. We created some good chances in the final 25 minutes of the half and found ourselves in a good place at halftime."
After the defensive clamps were in place, the Blue Angels sprung for two goals within five minutes of one another. With 20 minutes left in the half, Allison Klotz (Fr./Port Washington, Wis.) broke away with control and speed to give MMU their first goal of the game. Moments later, Kaeli Stellings (Fr./Beloit, Wis.) received a well-placed ball from Logan Ormeroid (Sr./New Berlin, Wis.) and fired it into the net to make it 3-2 MacMurray.
The second half continued the offensive battle. Klotz again navigated her way through the defense to find her second goal at the 67:11 mark to tie the game. Five minutes later, Klotz took advantage of a foul shot just on the edge of the box, and bent the ball around the goal keeper for her first collegiate hat-trick and the MMU lead.
Speedster Saccaro, again found a seam at the 76:25 mark and riffled the ball in the net to make it all tied at 4-4. The tie held up through regulation, which sparked MMU's first overtime frame of the season.
With an agreed upon "golden-goal", or first goal win, the team's took the field for OT. Halfway through the first ten minutes, a foul called in the box gave MacMurray a penalty kick. Ana Chariez placed the ball just out of the reach of Hannah Rose (Fr./Jeromesville, Ohio) to win the game.
"I am really proud of this team they stay with it and compete every game. We showed great fight in the second half, we kept pushing and found the tying goal, for us to then take the lead demonstrates the character of this group. "Coach Gulrajani added, "We really deserved a result tonight, our effort and energy the last 75 minutes of the game and overtime was really positive. We took steps forward tonight, unfortunately we didn't find the result but a lot of great things came out of this game. The team really worked hard and handled adversity, we can take some positives and bring them to Sunday."
MMU will host Lakeland this Sun. Sept. 18 at Mount Mary Field. The game begins at 1:00 pm and will have live stats at mtmaryathletics.com.
