COMMERCE CITY, Colo. (9/11/10) – The Colorado Buffaloes women’s club soccer team dropped a 2-1 battle with the Colorado State Rams on Saturday in the Rocky Mountain College Cup at Dicks Sporting Goods Park.
Though CSU took the early lead in the cup competition that featured games by both schools’ men’s and women’s club varsity squads, CU would go on to win the inaugural event thanks to the men’s team’s 3-0 shutout victory later in the evening.
Sophomore Tara Kissler scored the Buffs’ lone goal in the 61st minute when she received a nice cross pass from Megan Benjamin and fired the ball top shelf to make it a 2-1 game.
Colorado head coach Dorian Barnes said his team was a little tense to start the game, but they finally settled down and began to play their type of soccer in the second half.
“Coming into a venue like this and playing an arch rival, there was a lot of emotions behind the game, a lot of the nerves probably played part of the fact, but in the second half we calmed down a little bit and started playing the way that I know we know how to play,” Barnes said. “I think we controlled a lot of the play (in the second half), we got a very nice goal from Tara Kissler and we felt for the last 30-35 minutes we had an opportunity to come back, it just didn’t come in for us.”
Early on in the game Colorado looked like the better of the two squads as they controlled the ball down in the CSU zone and had a few good shots that were stopped by goalkeeper Danica Hansen.
The Buffs’ failure to score early left the door wide open for the Rams as they capitalized in the 14th minute with a goal from Taylor Grillo on only their second shot in the game. Katheryne Fitzpatrick assisted on the goal for Colorado State.
CSU took a 2-0 lead in the 57th minute when during a Rams corner kick the ball found the foot of Holly Hoguta and flied past CU keeper Jenna Greenwood for the goal.
Following Kissler’s goal to make it a 2-1 game, the Buffs began to put more pressure on the Rams in an attempt to get the equalizer.
“We definitely picked it up after (the goal),” Kissler said. “Everyone got a little more fire in them.”
CU’s best chance to tie came in the 78th minute when Kissler’s shot was denied in the box by Hansen. However the Rams keeper couldn’t gain control of the ball with Becky Santiago picking up the rebound. Unfortunately her shot flied over the net.
Santiago had two more chances within 20 yards in the final 10 minutes but both shots went wide of the goal.
Colorado did better Colorado State in both shot categories in the game as they outshot the Rams 15-10 overall and 9-6 in shots on goal on a beautiful afternoon that featured clear skies and temperatures in the low 80’s.
The loss drops Colorado’s record to 1-1 on the season while Colorado State remains undefeated at now 3-0.
CU used two goalkeepers in the game with Betsy Builder playing the first half and Greenwood taking the reins over between the pipes in the second. Both goalies finished with two saves each.
The Buffs did beat the Rams in the junior varsity game right before, winning 2-0.
Both schools varsity teams will face each other two more times this season with the Buffs looking for some redemption against the Ram next Friday in Fort Collins. They’re final meeting of the year will come on Oct. 30 in Boulder.
Next up for Colorado is their alumni game on Sunday at 11 a.m. at Franklin Field on the CU-Boulder campus. Their next home game will be on Sept. 19 versus the CSU JV squad.
Scoring Summary
14’ – CSU Taylor Grillo, assist from Katheryne Fitzpatrick (1-0)
57’ – CSU Holly Hoguta, unassisted (2-0)
61’ – CU Tara Kissler, assist from Megan Benjamin (2-1)
