Maggie Johnston 90th minute PK caps Iowa Soccer's win over Baylor
The Baylor defense held off Iowa for as long as they could. They dodged several bullets in the first half, but it seemed inevitable that the Hawkeyes would eventually cash in on a goal scoring chance. The break through came in the 57th minute on a header from Rielee Fetty and that was the first of three second half goals scored by Iowa in a 3-0 win over the Bears on Senior Night.
“That was something that was really important, trying to get a win on Senior Day,” said head coach Dave Dilanni. “There’s always a lot of emotion for seniors. You try to tell them, hey, it’s just one day, but it’s still emotional, and especially for this group…They’ve won a lot of games, a lot of big games.”
Although the scoreboard shows a 3-0 victory, the Hawkeyes took a bit of time to get going. They had a number of first half scoring chances, including 11 total shots, but went into the locker room tied 0-0. Coach Dave Dillani said not playing a game on Thursday may have thrown the team out of rhythm a bit.
“We didn’t have a great week of training and we trained like we had no Thursday game. We thought it’d give us a bit more rest, but it just takes you out of your rhythm a little bit, so we played a little bit like how we trained.”
“I thought we were pretty disconnnected. We created a lot of chances (in the first half), but we were a little naive. I thought we should have been up three, four nothing in the first half….I thought we settled for passes and perfect shots, versus being dynamic and being a bit quicker with our decisions.”
Early in the second half, it was Baylor putting some pressure on the Hawkeye defense and threatening to take the lead. The Bears got a near chance in the 52nd minute off a set piece opportunity on a free kick. Hannah Broughton got a head on a ball into the box, but Maggie Johnston was able to kick it away in front of the goal.
“They’re a good team, and they showed it in the second half,” said Dilanni. “We were a bit disconnected defensively and stretched our line out. You saw a lot of opportunities for them in the second half because we were just pretty stretched out as a unit and exposed our back line quite a bit.”
After several missed chances, the Hawkeyes finally broke through in the 57th minute. Midfielder Lauren Geczik played a corner kick short, but got it back and sent a perfect ball into the box. Rielee Fetty won a header over the top of Baylor midfielder Ashley Merrill and put it in the net for just the second goal of her career.
“We’ve been close on some corners and set pieces. Rielee Fetty is not somebody we target often, but she got in, and she’s a gritty kid, very blue collar, and stuck her nose in there,” said Dilanni. “I was a bit nervous that we didn’t take a strangle hold on the game. This felt a little bit like Western Michigan, where we didn’t put them away, and then we end up having a tie.”
Luckily, unlike the Western Michigan game, the Hawkeyes were able to add a couple of goals to the score and put this match away. The insurance goals came after Baylor threatened to equalize with their best chance of the night. In the 84th minute, forward Tyler Isgrig put a long distance shot on frame, but GK Macy Enneking was able to get a slight touch on it and deflect it off the crossbar. Iowa caught a break with the official calling for a goal kick rather than a corner and the Hawkeyes put the game away 40 seconds later.
A long ball into the box from Lauren Geczik took a high redirect off the foot of Elle Otto and freshman Berit Parten was able to send a header past Baylor GK Azul Alvarez to make it 2-0 in favor of the Hawkeyes.
The final exclamation point came in the 90th minute. A yellow card on Baylor midfielder Ashley Merrill in the box sent graduate senior Maggie Johnston to the penalty spot. She blasted a shot off the glove of Alvarez and into the goal to cap off a 3-0 win for the Hawkeyes.
“Credit to our kids. I thought they grinded it out,” said Dilanni. “We didn’t play great, but we played hard and sometimes that’s enough.”
“I think this group has an unlimited potential, and we always want to see them continue to get better. I thought we did that in moments today and other moments we didn’t.”
The Hawkeyes outshot Baylor 21-7 and held an 11-2 advantage in shots on goal. They earned 13 corner kicks to just two for Baylor. Iowa has now earned 45 corners kicks to just 12 by their opponents this season. Also noteworthy, the Hawkeyes are now 47-2-3 in their last 52 games when scoring 2+ goals.
Up Next: The Hawkeyes will host the Nebraska Cornhuskers for their Big Ten opener on Thursday night. Kickoff is set for 7:00pm CT on BTN+.
