By: Ashley Sholmire scored the game-winning golden goal with 21 seconds left in double overtime to give the Lady Blues a 2-1 win on Sunday.
Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College women's soccer team earned its first Midwest Conference victory of 2015 with an
Ashley Sholmire strike nabbing all three points for the Lady Blues with 21 seconds remaining in double overtime. IC improves to 4-6-2 (1-2-1 MWC) with its second consecutive win over the Green Knights after falling in the first 17 meetings between the two programs.
The match was wide open from the start and the Lady Blues nearly found the back of the net in the first minute when
Jessica Martinez hit the post. Illinois College was very much on the front foot in the opening stages and had five corner kicks in the first six minutes, though nothing found its way past St. Norbert goalkeeper Maddie Plinska. As the half progressed, St. Norbert began to see more and more of th e ball, peppering IC keeper
Cat Solberg with shot after after. Solberg was equal to the task however and match was scoreless for more than half an hour.
The opening goal of the game came off an incredible individual display of skill from
Bianca Savarese. The senior midfielder faked out two St. Norbert defenders to get to the middle of the 18-yard box with plenty of green space around her. In a one-on-one situation with Plinska, Savarese gave the SNC goalkeeper no chance, curling a shot to the upper left corner and making it a 1-0 lead for Illinois College at the break.
St. Norbert came back to tie it in the 67th minute on a Monica Stephans goal, sending the match to overtime at 1-1. It could have ended in regulation if not for the play of Solberg, who made eight saves in the second half alone.
Neither team could put a shot on target in the first overtime and the match seemed destined to end in a tie after Solberg made a save of a Danielle Harris shot with less than two minutes remaining in the second extra session and the Lady Blues were subsequently called for offside. But out of thin air, a pass from
Kaylen Sims with less than 30 seconds remaining was misplayed by a St. Norbert defender and resulted in a breakaway for
Ashley Sholmire to deposit past a diving Plinska for the game-winner. The goal was Sholmire's team-leading sixth of the season and her third game-winner.
Sholmire ended the match with seven shots and Savarese had four. The leading goal-scorer in the MWC, Katie Vanden Avond of St. Norbert, was held without a score despite 11 shots in the match.
Illinois College will go for two wins in a row on Oct. 10 when the Lady Blues host Carroll University at England Stadium at 10 a.m.
