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No. 15 Illinois Closes Big Ten Season With 4-0 Rout of Northwestern
Oct. 24, 2003
ILL-NU box score in PDF Format
Champaign, Ill. - The Fighting Illini scored four second-half goals to pull away from Northwestern for a 4-0 win in Friday night's Big Ten finale in front of 412 fans at Illinois Soccer Stadium. With the win, 15th ranked Illinois (11-3-2, 7-1-2) clinched its best-ever Big Ten record and its highest ever conference finish (2nd) and Tournament seed (2nd). The Wildcats, who needed a win to get in the Big Ten Tournament field, dropped to 7-8-1 overall and 3-5-1 in the league. After finding out that Michigan beat Michigan State earlier in the day, Northwestern knew that they needed a win tonight to get a bid to the Big Ten Tournament. While Illinois dominated position in the early going, the Wildcats were able to keep their hopes alive by keeping the game scoreless for the first 63 minutes. However, it was only a matter of time until the Illini offense would break through. "The first ten minutes, when we were knocking the ball around and they didn't really get a touch, it completely took the wind our of their sails from the get go," said Illinois Head Coach Janet Rayfield of her team's dominance in the early going. "The whole first half they were just trying to figure out how they were going to get the ball, and as long as they are trying to figure out a way to get it, then they aren't trying to figure out a way to score. That was huge for us in the first half." After failing to score on several good opportunities in the first half, the Illini offense finally broke through in the 64th minute when junior Andrea Ridgeway was able to capitalize on an NU mistake. A Wildcat defender, attempting to clear the ball out of the box misplayed and Ridgeway was right there to pick it up. She took a few touches toward the goal and beat NU goalkeeper Whitney Jones far post from eight yards out on the right side. It was Ridgeway's fourth goal of the season, and would open the floodgates for the Illini offense. The Orange and Blue would strike again eight minutes later when junior Tara Hurless took a feed from Paula Faherty at the top of the box, touched once and fired a rocket into the top right corner of the net from 20 yards out to give the Illini a 2-0 lead. "Paula was able to get me the ball," said Hurless, "I beat the defender with one touch to the outside and saw the keeper near post side and hit it upper right." It was the Rockford, Ill. native's tenth goal of the season and was Faherty's first assist of the year.
Just five minutes later, at the 76:29 mark, freshman Eva Strickland put home a header for her first career goal to put Illinois up 3-0. Sophomore Natasha Karniski served a ball into the box and Strickland was able to head it just inside the right post from close range. It was Karniski's third assist of the season.
Strickland would also be in on the Illini's final score, but this time she was on the other end of it. With less than two minutes to play, the Seattle native served the ball into the box from the left side and Hurless was there to head it just inside the right post from five yards out to give the Illini their fourth and final goal of the night. "Eva controlled the ball and I was backing up because everyone was moving forward that way," said Hurless of her second score of the night. "She found my head and I hit it far post." It was Hurless' team-leading 11th goal of the season and her fifth in the last three games. For Strickland, who entered the game leading the Big Ten in assists during conference play, it was her fifth assist on the season. The UI defense was once again outstanding, limiting the Wildcats to just six shots and four shots on goal for the night. The Illini on the other hand, fired 23 shots, eight of which were on frame. UI goalkeeper Leisha Alcia made four stops and played all 90 minutes to earn her seventh shutout of the season. Northwestern net-minder Whitney Jones also went the distance, giving up all four goals while making for saves for the Wildcats. "I told the team after the game that going 7-1-2 in the Big Ten and not losing a conference game on the road is a huge step forward for the program," said Rayfield when asked to evaluate her team's performance in the Big Ten. "When you get this close and don't win a title there is a slight sense of disappointment, but this program just took a huge step forward in terms of the performance in the Big Ten, and that says a lot of what these kids did between last fall and now. One loss in the Big Ten is a high standard for the next team to try to beat, so that is great for them." Up Next: The Fighting Illini (11-3-2, 7-1-2) will host the Wisconsin-Green Bay Phoenix (7-6-1, 4-2-0 Horizon League) this Sunday, Oct. 26 at 2 p.m. in a non-conference tit at Illinois Soccer Stadium |
