The sun graced East Field last Saturday as the Pacific Lutheran and Lewis & Clark women’s soccer teams battled it out during a high paced game. The game went into a double overtime with PLU winning 2-1. It was the fifth straight time these two teams have gone to overtime starting since 2012.
Jumping into action, the game started out fast with Emily Thompson of Lewis & Clark as she put the Pioneers on the score board early by scoring a goal 12 minutes into the game with the help of teammate Anna Thorndike.
This was quickly matched by junior forward Lauren Larson as she stole the ball from a defender and put the Lutes on the scoreboard just six minutes later.
This set the tone for the rest of regulation as both sides battled to gain control of the ball. The Pioneers defense played strong against the Lutes offense as they kept the ball away from the net. Senior goalkeeper Geena Fong of Lewis & Clark saved a total of six balls the whole game.
Both teams went into halftime with 1-1. However, after the half, the Lutes came back even stronger by keeping the ball within their possession.
“[Lewis & Clark] have two good forwards and I told our back four girls that they needed to do a good job, which they did,” head coach Seth Spidahl said.
As regulation time ran out, both teams struggled to score. Takara Mitsui of Pacific Lutheran saved three goals to prevent the Pioneers from scoring again.
The game went into overtime which added another 10 minutes on the clock. With that 10 minutes passing quickly, neither team managed to score a goal, resulting in a two minute break before an additional 10 minutes were added.
“[The game] was really tough but we are resilient,” junior and left defender Nicoya Benham-Mairn said, “[Lewis & Clark] is a great team and they are fighters too but they had certain weaknesses we could take advantage of.”
However, after two minutes of play in double overtime, junior forward Jamie Hoffman got Fong out of the net which helped her to score the game winning goal.
The Lutes rushed the field with great excitement and hugs all around as they celebrated their well-earned victory.
“We have been working on being mentally strong as a team and the girls are learning to embrace playing a full 110 minute game,” Spidahl said, “this is college soccer and they have to play strong until the end.”
This win moved Pacific Lutheran to a 4-2-1 overall and a 2-1 in conference record while moving down Lewis & Clark 4-2-2 overall and 2-1-1 in the Northwest Conference.
The Lutes took on George Fox University the following day at noon.
