SEPTEMBER 30, 2011
DES MOINES, Iowa - With a
flick of the head senior Danielle Figliola (Longmont, Colo./Silver Creek) netted the golden goal in the 107th
minute (106:44) of double overtime to lead the Drake women's soccer team to a
2-1 victory over Indiana State (3-9, 0-2 MVC) on Friday (Sept. 30) at the
Cownie Soccer Complex.
The Bulldogs (3-5-4, 1-1 MVC) wore purple jerseys for the contest in
their inaugural "KICK Cancer" game to raise cancer awareness. Drake raised $475 for the American
Cancer Society in pregame sales for its Wall of Honor, while bringing in an
additional $445 in a pregame clinic benefiting St. Jude's Children's Hospital.
"We knew tonight was going to be important coming home after a long road
swing for us as we like to say "Defend Cownie"," Drake head coach Lindsey Horner commented. "Getting three points at home in
conference will be important for us as all the games in our league will be
tight. Indiana State beat us last
year in double overtime, so we sort of had that in the back of our heads all
week going into training."
The first half proved to be a back-and-forth affair as the Bulldogs
maintained a slim 6-5 advantage in shots at the intermission.
The second half the game opened up more offensively for Drake, but
unfortunately it was Shelby Troyer who capitalized with her first goal of the
season at the 58:57 mark to give Indiana State a 1-0 lead. Natalie Vaught earned the assist on the
tally.
"I thought we did a good job of possessing the ball and moving it side
to side and trying to attack down the flank," said Horner. "We weren't getting on the end of our
service in the first half and then we gave up an early goal against the run of
play."
The Bulldogs earned an 11-3 advantage in shots in the final stanza, but
needed Figliola's first goal of the year in the 85th minute (84:05) to send the
contest into overtime.
Junior Tara Zika (St. Louis,
Mo./Ursuline) moved the ball up the flank feeding a ball into sophomore Paige Dusek (St. Charles, Ill./St.
Charles North), who in turn passed the ball into Figliola for the goal.
"As the game opened up we were able to swing it through our center
midfielders out the other way," Horner explained. "Ann (Hoover) and Angela (Chigazola) came up big for us
tonight just whipping in some really good balls and as Indiana State started to
respect their service it then opened up our wide forwards."
Drake finished the game outshooting the Sycamores, 21-9, including 4-1
in overtime. Figliola paced all
players with a career-best nine shots, while junior Laura Moklestad (Des Moines, Iowa/Roosevelt) added four shots. Indiana State was led by two shots
apiece from Ashley Collins, Morgan Wendlandt and Troyer.
"As the game went on, the quality of our service got better and Danielle
(Figliola) worked really hard to get on the end of it and the service was great
on both goals," stated Horner.
Sycamore goalkeeper Emily Lahay pulled in a game-high nine saves, while
sophomore goalkeeper Kalena Litch
(Plymouth, Minn./Wayzata) collected five saves for the Bulldogs.
Drake returns to action next Friday with a 7:00 p.m. tilt at Missouri
State.
Horner was extremely proud of the way here team battled to earn the
victory, but was equally as proud of their efforts to make the "KICK Cancer"
game such a memorable event.
"On a night when we're wearing purple for the American Cancer Society I
thought our efforts for this wonderful event were commendable and defined the
spirit and determination in which millions of people fight this terrible
disease every day."
