In a physical game at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium on Friday night, the University of Minnesota soccer team battled their way to a hard-fought 2-0 victory over Iowa State. Clare Grimwood (Eagan, Minn.) scored the game-winner with the first goal of her career in the 64th minute, and Lindsey Schwartz (Bettendorf, Iowa) sealed the victory with a goal in the 79th minute. Lindsey Dare (Apple Valley, Minn.) made nine saves to record her third shutout in as many games for the Golden Gophers as they remained unbeaten on the season at 3-0.
The first half saw a great deal of physical play on both ends of the field and neither team was able to generate much of an offensive attack. The Golden Gophers managed just two shots on goal in the first half, while the Cyclones had four. Dare made a couple of beautiful saves to keep Iowa State off the board and the teams went into the break in a 0-0 deadlock.
Minnesota came out of the intermission with a renewed fire and put some offensive pressure on Iowa State early in the second half. Kaitlin Wagner (Plymouth, Minn.) provided Minnesota’s first serious scoring threat in the 48th minute, but ISU goalkeeper Ann Gleason made a diving save to deny the attempt.
Grimwood finally broke the scoreless tie in the 64th minute. Grimwood took a pass from Wagner on the left side of the 18-yard box, and with a defender draped all over her, she found a way to get a shot off and beat a diving Gleason to the far post to give the Gophers a 1-0 advantage.
The Cyclones had a chance to tie the score in the 69th minute on a set play that resulted from a Minnesota foul. Iowa State’s Elise Reid blasted a shot on the free kick from 25 yards out, but Dare made a beautiful save with a full extension to tip the ball over the net.
Schwartz sealed the victory for Minnesota with a phenomenal goal in the 79th minute. Schwartz took a pass from Hood near the right sideline and maneuvered her way into the middle of the field. She created just enough space to get a shot off with her opposite foot and fired it past Gleason to the top of the left post.
Minnesota held in the final ten minutes of the game to come away with the victory.
The Gophers will be in action again on Sunday against No. 30 Missouri at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium, with the opening kickoff scheduled for 1 p.m. Weather permitting, live coverage will be available in the Gold Zone, the premium content site for Golden Gopher athletics.
Post-game Quotes
Assistant coach Kate Cortis
On the physical play throughout the game:
“With a young team, sometimes you’re not as quick reacting to adversity. [Iowa State] really pressed hard. They were really well organized, the most organized defensive team we’ve seen, so it took us awhile to figure out how to break them down and ultimately our kids found a way to win.
“The Iowa State-Minnesota game is always a great battle. There are so many kids on both teams who were youth teammates or played against each other before they came to college, so there are a lot of rivalries between players on the two teams.”
On the Gophers’ ability to stay composed:
“To stay consistent and to keep faith when we didn’t score right off the bat like we did in our first two games was great.”
On what the coaches told the team at halftime:
“We were getting out-competed in some places on the field in the first half. That’s never acceptable at Minnesota Soccer and our player know it. They just needed a bit of a reminder of what their standard is and they took it upon themselves and played a great second half.”
Sophomore forward Lindsey Schwartz
On the Gophers’ offensive performance:
“We weren’t possessing as well as we should have been in the first half and there was some miscommunication. We came out in the second half and realized we needed to put a couple goals away and play harder than they were.”
On the physical play the Gophers faced in the game:
“It’s so important to keep your composure. We’re going to face a lot of teams like this in the Big Ten. The Big Ten is a physical conference, so it was a good warm-up for us to play a team like Iowa State because all of our games are going to be tough.”
On what the coaches said to the team at halftime:
“They told us straight out that [Iowa State] was outworking us and for us to win we had to come out and outwork the other team. That’s what we did in the second half.”
Sophomore Clare Grimwood
On what it took to win the game:
“We started off slow, and as a team we are usually the ones dishing out the physical play. It kind of caught us by surprise. We went in at halftime and told each other we needed to come out and play harder. We definitely turned it around in the second half.
On the first goal of her career:
“It felt right. It felt good. It just felt really good to win this game.
Game Notes
With its 2-0 win on Friday night, Minnesota opened a season with three consecutive shutouts for the first time in school history.
The Golden Gophers are 3-0 for the first time since 1996. It is just the third time in school history the Gophers have opened the season with three straight wins. Minnesota started the 1996 season, 4-0, and got off to a 5-0 start in 1995.
Lindsey Dare became the first goalkeeper since 1994 to post three shutouts in the first three starts of her career. Only two other Minnesota goalkeepers ever opened their careers with two straight shutouts.
The Gophers shut out three straight opponents for the first time since Sept. 30-Oct. 7, 2005. Prior to that, Minnesota had not shut out three consecutive opponents since posting four straight from Oct. 1-13, 2000.
Minnesota scored multiple goals for the third straight game. The Gophers had not had three straight multi-goal games since posting eight consecutive multi-goal games from Oct. 16-Nov. 11, 1998.
After snapping a school-record streak of 13 straight one-goal games last weekend, the Gophers now have now posted three straight games decided by more than one goal. The last time that happened was in 2000, when Minnesota went 3-3 during a stretch of six straight games decided by more than one goal. The last time Minnesota won three straight matches decided by more than one goal was Oct. 16-24, 1998.
The Golden Gophers have combined for seven goals in their first three games. Minnesota has not started a season with that much scoring since opening the 1998 season with 14 goals in its first three games. The last time Minnesota combined for seven goals in three straight games was Sept. 4-13, 2002. Ironically, Iowa State was on the tail end of that streak as well.
Clare Grimwood scored the first goal of her career in the 64th minute on Friday night against Iowa State.
After just three games this season, Kelsey Hood has already matched her assist total from last year with two.
Lindsey Schwartz posted career highs with eight shots and four shots on goal against the Cyclones.
