CALDWELL, Idaho – Two extra sessions were not enough to decide a victor on Sunday afternoon at Simplot Stadium, where the Yotes earned a hard-fought 0-0 draw against No. 10 Embry-Riddle.
Despite neither team coming away with a crooked number on the goals column, multiple opportunities presented themselves for both sides, including a pair of penalty kicks for the College of Idaho in the final 15 seconds.
Following a foul by the Eagles in the 110th minute,
Brynna Herridge would line up a shot that was saved by keeper Caitlyn Aaron. Following some discussion, Aaron was ruled to have been off the line prior to the kick. As a result of the second foul in six seconds, C of I would be rewarded with another chance in the form of
Alexa Rierson, who also had her shot saved in the air by Aaron.
"I don't know if I have seen a game where in the last 15 seconds you get two chances at a penalty and come up empty, but credit to their keeper, who made two good saves on it," said head coach
Brian Smith. "Penalties you see missed all the time, so it's certainly not a 100 percent guarantee that you are going to make it."
Defense was a major bright spot for the Yotes once again, as
Shae Waters had five saves and
Kylee Atkins two to lead the way in a second consecutive shutout.
Embry-Riddle finished with 19 shots, while C of I had 16 at the culmination of the match.
On the attack, Herridge topped the shots tally with six, including two on goal.
Madison Glascock had two shots of her own and one on goal.
"It was nice after the game for the girls to feel like 'dang, we had our chances to win it'," Smith said. "We are right there with what is on paper the 10th best team in the country and we played right with them toe-to-toe, and quite frankly had the best chances in the game to win it. We had a one-on-one that we didn't quite put away in regulation and then obviously the two chances there at the end, but a great performance."
A challenging non-conference slate was created for this season to test C of I in a big way early on, something which will continue with a trip to California next week.
"I think every time we have played we are getting better," Smith said. "We are playing against better competition. I thought Embry-Riddle was a great team for us to get really early in the season. They are older in a lot of spots, so for us to have another young group go out on to the field and show just a lot of character, grit and fight to not only go 90 minutes, but 110 minutes and not give up a goal and to put themselves in a position to win the game – that's all you can you can really ask at this stage in the season."
As expected, there are still some focus areas for improvement, however the Yotes displayed plenty to be excited about over the first official weekend of action.
"We have a lot of things to work on, but we are showing that when it's not pretty, we can still grind, fight and scrap," Smith said. "We stay in moments and stay in games, and that's the mark of a team that has a lot of upside and could be really good as they continue to grow and mature."
