CSM Survive Concordia

CSM came out on fire, cooled a bit, tripped and finally eeked out a victory versus Concordia on a muggy Saturday afternoon.  Ramsey Miller scored off of an assist by Katie Archibald in the 3rd minute.  That would be the 5th time in 7 games that CSM has scored in the first 12 minutes of the game. 

Things were looking pretty good until Katie Archibald drew a red card for a foul off the ball.  Katie said that lost her composure and she retaliated after a player fouled her.  CSM then had to play one player down for the rest of the game.  Katie will also have to sit out the next game.

Red cards don't happen too often in the women's game and our players had little experience with it.  We were a bit confused for awhile but ended the half up 1-0.

At halftime we told the players to remain calm and composed.  The only difference was that we would just have one forward--everything else we play the same--no time to panic.  The important thing was to keep possession and try not to just send hopeful balls forward.

Less than 10 minutes into the second half, RaeLeigh Withey lined up a free kick about 10 yards from the center line.  I told her from the sideline to focus and get the ball in the net.  Rae stepped to it and struck it clean.  It then sailed high in the air and dipped into the upper 90 to give us a 2-0 lead.  The keeper had no chance.

We made things interesting in the 69th  minute when Keeper Jackie Swanger had the ball at her feet, tried to cut it back at the top of the box and tripped.  With pressure on her, Swanger tried to play the ball out but it went to the feet of Concoria's Ford who put it in the back of the net to make the score 2-1.

We then buckled down and kept a lot of possession and had a few more good chances on the goal.  Defender Jessie McLaughlin almost scored her first career goal on a corner kick.

With about 3 minutes to go, we weren't trying to attack, just hold the ball in their end when we lost it and Concordia crushed it forward, catching our back line flat footed and the race was on. Swanger came out, missed the ball and Hilary Brown cleared it off of the line.  Concordia had 2 corners in the last 40 seconds but we were able to survive.  Whew!

A lot of positives came out of this game.  We learned that we can deal with adversity and still be successful.  We learned that we can change our style of play and keep possession when we need to.  We learned that if we play as a team, we will survive.  We are taking steps forward.  We do have a few things to work on--but I am sure we will attack our shortcomings with intensity.