By: After the Lady Blues held the Big Blue off the scoreboard for 45 minutes, Millikin quickly tallied the game-winner within a minute of the start of the second half.
Box Score
DECATUR, Ill. – The Illinois College women's soccer team withstood a flurry of Millikin shots in the first half to go into the break still knotted at 0-0, but the Big Blue scored within a minute of the start of the second half and added another less than nine minutes later to come away with the 2-0 victory.
Charlotte Crofton was kept busy but was up to the challenge for the 62 minutes she was in goal. The sophomore kept Illinois College in the match by making 11 saves, 10 of which came in the first half. At the break, Millikin had an 18-2 edge in shots, but the score was still 0-0. Both of IC's shots in the first half were on frame, but efforts from
Alex Wilson and
Mackenzie Bedgood were saved by Anna Benvenuto.
The tenor of the match shifted immediately in the second half as Lucy Koger had a shot blocked by the Illinois College defense, only for the deflection to fall to Sydney Rudny to tuck away. Nine minutes later, Shae Giovanni scored unassisted to double the Millikin lead.
Illinois College was able to find more chances as the clock ticked down, but Benvenuto kept her clean sheet. Bedgood and
Ashley Sholmire had shots saved by Benvenuto within 15 seconds of each other just past the hour mark. Sholmire forced another save from Benvenuto in the 70th minute.
Carly Millage entered in the final half-hour to close out the match and made one save while keeping the Big Blue from adding onto their lead.
Illinois College will be on the road again this weekend, facing Rockford University at 1 p.m. on Sept. 9.
