As the calendar turned to October, the North Idaho College women’s soccer team found itself two games below .500, posting a 3-5-2 record to start the season. NIC needs to finish the season with a .500 or better record to make the district playoffs. The Lady Cardinals got one step closer Oct. 4 after defeating Salt Lake Community College 3-0 at Eisenwinter Field. NIC played its previous four games on the road.
“This whole season we just kind of been down on ourselves just because we’ve lost 1-0 games, but now that we’re winning it definitely picks up our confidence,” freshman Natalie Middleton said. “At the half of that game when we were winning 2-0, it was an awesome feeling.”
The Lady Cardinals spread the wealth on offense with all three goals coming from three different players. Middleton opened up the scoring with a goal from near midfield that arced over the goalkeeper’s head. Middleton later admitted the goal was intended to be a pass.
“I got the deflection and I just took a little touch and just knocked it in,” Middleton said. “I was going for the long pass but it just chipped in.”
Hogan estimated the goal to be about 45 yards.
“Our team has really good chemistry, so just picking each other up when someone did something wrong, I think that’s what carried us,” Middleton said.
Sophomore Kellsi Parson scored the second goal on a penalty kick with about nine seconds left in the first half to put NIC up 2-0.
Parson said Tiffany Draper passed the ball to her and she took a touch. A Salt Lake player made contact with Parson as she was trying to kick the ball. Parson missed kicking the ball and because of the contact, a penalty kick resulted.
Toward the end of the game, freshman Taylor Peterson extended the Lady Cardinals’ lead to 3-0 with a goal. It was a line drive kick that appeared to be secured by the goalkeeper, but the ball bounced off her hands and across the goal line for a score.
NIC almost converted on other goal-scoring opportunities throughout the game. Salt Lake’s goalkeeper stopped two of Ellie Engel’s potential first-half goals and freshman Keilin Farrand’s free kick in the second half hit either the crossbar or one of the side posts and bounced away.
“We were working hard at wanting to be more aggressive and take more risks because actually getting shots off has probably been our problem related to scoring,” NIC head coach Dan Hogan said. “So I was pretty happy with how we were more aggressive, especially the second half we were even more aggressive than the first in getting shots off.”
