St. Peter, Minn. – After suffering consecutive losses last week, the Gustavus women’s soccer team got back on track with a 1-0 shutout over Crown College on Wednesday at the Gustie Soccer Field. Amanda Cartony (Sr., Stillwater, Minn.) scored her fourth goal of the season at the 23:48 mark to give the Gusties all they would need to come away with the one-goal victory. Gustavus improves to 4-3-0 on the year, while Crown drops to 2-3-1.
Gustavus wasted no time establishing itself as the aggressor on the offensive end, firing two shots on goal in the first :30 seconds of the match. The Gusties would go on to outshoot the Storm 23-0 in the first half and 11-1 in the second for a shot advantage of 34-1 for the day.
“We moved the ball well and created a lot of opportunities right from the get-go,” stated Head Coach Laura Burnett-Kurie. “Usually it takes us a little time to feel the game out, but we were putting shots on net from the very beginning today. It was great to see all of the opportunities we had offensively, the Crown goalkeeper just came up with a bunch of big saves.”
Amanda Cartony put the Gusties on the scoreboard in the 24th minute when she scored her fourth goal of the season. Estee Berg (Sr., Stillwater, Minn.) sent a pass through two Storm defenders into the box to a streaking Cartony, who took a touch and fired the shot left-footed past a diving Emily Kirby to put the Gusties in front 1-0. The goal was Cartony’s 23rd of her career, moving her into a tie for 10th place on the women’s soccer all-time career goals scored list at Gustavus.
“It’s really exciting and I’m honored to be on the top 10 list,” admitted a sheepish Cartony of her accomplishment. “I just really want to thank my teammates for helping me get there.”
Although opportunities abounded, the Gusties could not crack Crown goalkeeper Emily Kirby for the remainder of the half and took the one-goal lead into halftime. It was more of the same in the second half as Gustavus held a 10-shot advantage in the final frame. However the Gusties could not capitalize on those 10 shots and settled for the one-goal victory.
Gustavus goalkeeper Caroline Olson (Jr., York, Pa.) only needed to make one save in the match on the way to her fourth win of the season in goal. With the win, Olson improves to 4-3-0 on the year. Crown goalkeeper Emily Kirby weathered 34 shots to make 17 saves and only allow one goal in the loss.
“It felt great to come out and play well today,” said Cartony. “I think we had a lot of good ball movement and we created dangerous shots. The scoreboard really doesn’t show how well we played because it was only 1-0, but it was still a lot of fun.”
The Gusties will be back in action on Saturday when they host Saint Benedict at the Gustie Soccer Field in the second annual “Kicking For A Cause” match. Saturday’s match is set for a 1:00 p.m. start.
“We have to do the little things,” finished Burnett-Kurie. “We are playing the right way and we can create a lot of dangerous opportunities. Now we just have to continue to work on the little things. That is going to be our focus for the next couple of days heading into Saturday against Saint Ben’s.”