The Winona State University women’s soccer team defeated Southwest Minnesota State University 2-1 on Sunday, Oct. 20. This was a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) match, which took place at Winona State University.
This game was particularly important as it was Alumni Day for Winona State. The team played a stunning game to show off to their onlooking alumni, showing them that the Warriors still have it on both the defensive and offensive side of the game.
From the beginning, both teams attempted to have control of the ball and the Warriors picked up momentum quickly in hopes to attack.
Due to this, they earned a corner in the first two minutes of the game. Still, Southwest Minnesota State stopped the attack with an offside trap and later fouled Winona State’s Kyleigh Jannisch, which slowed the pace for the Warriors as she maintained strong play throughout the first few minutes of the game.
However, these rough plays were not enough to stop the Warriors from scoring goals. In the fifteenth minute, Johanna Shubert came in as an angel and scored the first goal of the match.
“We really wanted this win. We knew this was a beatable team, and wanted to really take advantage of that,” Shubert said. “We all managed to get up together. We lost the ball together, and we all scored together.”
The Warriors tried to balance their attack and defense after this goal by passing the ball between themselves on their half of the field.
Southwest Minnesota State took advantage of this situation and began to try different attacking strategies. They shot three times toward the goal post in the first half.
Southwest Minnesota State had two corner kicks as well. From one of the corners, they found their first goal to equalize the score at 1-1 which it would remain at until the half was over.
The second half was full of attacks and counter attacks from both teams. Winona State managed two corner kicks within the first three minutes.
A little bit of aggressive play was seen from both sides with seven fouls and three yellow cards received. Neither team allowed for any slack from the other. It felt like a stalemate-type situation, which was about to end in a draw.
In the 79th minute, Winona State brought back Jannisch to reinforce their attack. She was in the starting eleven but had to fall back to the bench in the first half due to injury.
Three minutes after coming back, she managed to score the match-winning goal, assisted by Shubert. After that, there were only seven minutes left to celebrate their victory.
“I just knew that being down or tying the game would not be enough, and I didn’t want to be content with that. So, I think everyone rallied and pushed hard.” Jannisch said.
Southwest Minnesota State made two player substitutions after the goal to pace the game but it was not enough as Winona State prepared to counter from the left side.
The Warriors were unsuccessful in their attempt, but they managed to get another corner kick. They did not pull all the players off their attack at the end so there was no room for counterattack.
“I think the turning point for us was at Mankato, self-belief and just believing that we can do it. The big change in what we are looking to do is turning defense into offense, rather than just defending to defend and attacking to attack.” Warrior assistant coach Matthew Cross said.
Winona State will remain home for their next two matches. They will face the University of Mary on Friday, Oct. 25 at 5:00 pm and they will face Minot State University on Sunday, Oct. 27 at noon.
