Tough Second Half Fells K-State in Opener
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| 1 | 0 |
MANHATTAN, Kansas (Kansas State Athletics) – A goal in the opening six minutes from freshman Sophie Harlan gave K-State a spark to begin the 2022 soccer season, but Northwestern rallied with a pair of second half goals to secure the season-opener, 2-1, on Thursday night at Buser Family Park.
HOW IT HAPPENED
– K-State (0-1-0) registered the opening tally in the sixth minute off a corner kick. Senior Kursten von Klahr’s corner service found jousting K-State and Northwestern heads at the top of the six-yard box.
– The loose ball caromed to the charging right foot of sophomore Adah Anderson just inside the Northwestern 18-yard box. Anderson attempted a shot toward the lower left corner, but the ball was redirected with a smooth backheel flick from Harlan. Harlan’s redirection from the top of the six-yard box found the bottom of the left post and tucked into the frame.
– Harlan is the second freshman in program history to score a goal in a season-opener, joining Katie Cramer from the first match in school history at Saint Louis in 2016.
– The assist on the goal for Anderson was the second of her career.
– Northwestern (1-0-0) held possession for a majority of the opening 20 minutes of the second half and broke through with the tying goal in the 65th minute on a corner kick. Josie Aulicino found the head of Rowan Lapi. Lapi, from the left post, headed the ball back across the K-State frame and found an open Caterina Regazzoni for the tap in goal.
– Northwestern went in front in the 70th minute as Emma Phillips stunned the 608 fans in attendance with a bicyle kick from the top of the six-yard box on a cross from Lily Gilbertson.
QUICK FACTS
– K-State is 0-3-1 all-time against teams from the Big Ten Conference.
– The Wildcats are 1-5-1 all-time in season-openers and own a 2-5-0 record in home openers.
– Freshmen Jazmin Brown and Harlan made their collegiate debuts in the starting lineup on Thursday night. The pair marked the first time K-State started two or more true freshmen in a season-opener since the 2017 season in which the Wildcats opened the season at Oregon State with five true freshmen in the first lineup of that season.
– Northwestern outshot K-State, 18-8, and held an 11-2 edge in shots on goal. The visiting Wildcats registered an 11-5 advantage in total shots in the second half.
– Junior goalkeeper Alaina Werremeyer tallied eight saves. This was the 14th career match for Werremeyer in which she has made five or more saves.
FROM THE HEAD COACH
K-State Head Coach Mike Dibbini
“I felt like we played a really good game and stuck to the game plan. The biggest lesson that I think we have to takeaway from this game is when you get a lead, your mindset has to continue to be in attack mode and and we’ve kind of played more protective games. I think that kind of put us back on our heels a little bit. We have got to learn not to just protect a lead to get a lead. We took a lead one zero. I don’t know if it’s experienced factor of us being in that position before or not, but I mean, I thought overall, we played a pretty good game against a really good team and we saw some really promising moments. We saw some moments that we have to get better.”
FROM THE FIELD
K-State Freshman Forward Sophie Harlan
“The ball came in and I saw Adah was ready to kick it and I was like, ‘do I need to get away? Do I need to move?’ Then it came right at me and I thought it was going to go wide so I just flicked it in with my backheel.”
“It made me want to keep going and I felt like the team really, like came back with it.”
“I definitely think that this is going to be a learning game for us and that next time it’s going to be different.”
UP NEXT
K-State completes season-opening weekend by hosting Northern Colorado on Sunday at 1 p.m. For tickets, visit kstatesports.com/tickets or call 800-221-CATS.
