MORAGA, Calif. - The women's soccer matches between Gonzaga University and Saint Mary's College seem destined to go into overtime and Sunday was no different. The Bulldogs and Gaels played their sixth overtime match in nine years and fourth-straight double-overtime-match in Moraga. The Zags came out on top Sunday, scoring the golden goal in the 102nd minute to win 2-1.
"We knew it would take a gritty performance today to get the win against a tough Saint Mary's team that had 28 extra hours of rest," explained Gonzaga head coach Amy Edwards after the thrilling victory. "Our team took yesterday's recovery seriously and implemented everything we asked them to do and it was critical for us in battling through the second overtime to get the win."
The Gaels last played on Thursday, while the Bulldogs were coming off a 3-2 overtime setback to the University of Pacific on Friday evening.
Sunday's overtime victory snapped a four-match losing skid for the Zags and improved their record to 6-10-1 overall and 2-5 in West Coast Conference action. The Gaels fell to 6-12-0 on the year and also 2-5 in the WCC.
Sophomore Heather Johnson was the hero for Gonzaga Sunday, not only scoring the tying goal but the match-winning goal 1:46 into the second overtime.
"Heather was tremendous on both of her finishes," Edwards simply said of Johnson's crucial performance.
Johnson may have been the one to find the back of the net for the match-winner but it wouldn't have happened without the hard work of sophomore Mikayla Anderson, junior Katey Pennington and junior Kasey Rubosky.
Anderson started the play off winning the ball in the middle of the Gaels defensive half and played a nice ball to the left flank for Rubosky. The midfielder then got to the end line and served a cross into the box that Pennington flicked to the on-coming and wide-open Johnson. The Kennewick, Wash. native hit her shot into the left corner of the goal.
Johnson had tied the match in the 61st minute after Saint Mary's had broken the scoreless tie less than four minutes into the second half on a header by Samantha Dion off a corner kick.
It was a beautiful strike by Johnson that tied the match at 60:11. She had received the ball from freshman Karley Baggerly, and, after noticing SMC's goalkeeper Kaeli Schmidt had frozen just for a split-second, Johnson let her 12-yard shot fly into the upper right corner of the goal.
Her second multi-goal match of her career and season now has Johnson leading the squad in goals with five.
Defender Jordan Travis came up with what may have been the biggest play of the afternoon when she tackled the ball away from Dion, who had snuck behind the defense and had a one-on-one with Zag goal keeper Christie Tombari. The play, which happened in the 70th minute, kept the match knotted at 1-1 but knocked both Travis and Tombari out of the match as they collided into each other and both required stitches.
The Tombari injury brought freshman goalkeeper Chelsea Carey into the match for her first action of the season. The gusty Tombari returned to the pitch for both overtime periods.
"Give credit to Christie for her resilience and toughness to come back into the game after getting stitched up," said Edwards of Tombari. "Also credit Carey her confidence and composure to come in while Christie was out. She didn't look like a rookie."
Gonzaga finished the match with 17 shots, nine of which were on goal, while Saint Mary's had 15 shots and six on goal.
Tombari made five saves in 80 minutes of play, while Schmidt was forced to make seven saves.
The Bulldogs return to action Thursday when they host the University of San Francisco at the Gonzaga Soccer Field. The match is set for 2 p.m.
