11/1/14 vs. Baldwin Wallace

Our last regular season game was held this past Saturday at Bernlohr Stadium against Baldwin Wallace. Since our regular conference play was coming to an end the team knew how important this game was in regards to our conference tournament seed and they had prepared tremendously throughout the previous week.

The Crusaders came out of the gates ready to play hard and battle for this win! Only a couple minutes into play we were set up with a free kick just yards outside BW's box. Claire Quinn placed the ball perfectly at the near post where Mary Bushee ran on, used her body and pushed the ball into the net. As we celebrated the goal the ref, however ended our excitement with an offsides call. A wave of defeat swept across our girls as they tried to shake off the sudden halt in momentum. Around 20 minutes into play we caused a foul around half field. With the wind in Baldwin Wallace's favor, their center back struck the ball and it floated across the field and into the top of our goal. Once BW scored their goal we realized that the rest of the game would be a fight for the win. At the end of the half we were losing 0-1.

The team regrouped and made a point to start and maintain the advantage in the second half. We were determined to even the score and played extremely hard to create many opportunities at goal. As we contained the Baldwin Wallace's attack and attempted at our own, the time dwindled down. At the 81st minute we had a corner and everyone knew that they had to make it count. Shelby Johnson played the ball in to the box and each team scrambled to gain possession. The ball was knocked out but met by Becca Cartmill who reserved it into the box. Morgan Austin made contact and the ball ended up in the vicinity of  Mary Bushee who got a head on it and placed it side netting! With the game tied 1-1 the Crusaders took the momentum of the goal and attacked the BW defense. Although tremendous effort was made to go forward we were unable to score ending regular time in a tie.

Our team knew the reality of overtime in the fact that they could end it as quickly as they wanted. They had momentum and a great desire to win the game which translated onto the field. In the first 6 minutes we accumulated 3 corner kicks and 5 shots on goal. In the 7th minute we were fouled around the 25 yard mark. Claire Quinn saw an opportunity far post and put the ball exactly there. Waiting was Mariah Richards who gained an advantage over a defender, put her head on the ball and knocked it far post into the goal! We had won the game and the team was overjoyed as they bombarded the field!

We ended regular play third in the conference. Our first tournament game is tomorrow November 4th at home against John Carroll University. We kick off at 2pm! See you there!