PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Northwestern came to Yurcak Field with six shutouts this season and a sophomore goalkeeper who had 15 of them in her career. Rutgers scored on her three times in 33 minutes.
Gabriela Gil opened the scoring at 18:38, Morgan Hippeli doubled it at 25:32 and Lilia Calvert answered Northwestern’s first goal 97 seconds later at 51:43, and the Scarlet Knights held on to beat the Wildcats 3-2 on Thursday night on the Pinkout at Yurcak Field. Gwen Zimmerman and Camryn Freeman scored for
Northwestern, and Freeman’s goal at 70:59 made the last 19 minutes far longer than they needed to be.
The running thread of this season has been a shot profile that reads better than the record, and for one night the record caught up. Every one of Rutgers’ four Big Ten losses has come by a single goal. This win did too, and this time the goal went the right way.
Northwestern arrived 5-5-3 and 3-2-1 in the Big Ten, on the second leg of a three-match road swing and coming off a 3-0 loss at No. 7 Ohio State, its fourth defeat this season against a team ranked inside the top 15. Michael Moynihan is in his 15th season in Evanston, the winningest coach in program history and the man who won the 2016 Big Ten title there. The Wildcats made the NCAA Tournament last fall for the eighth time in program history, went out on penalties to Alabama, and brought back 84.4 percent of their minutes from that team.
The profile is defense first and defense second. Northwestern had scored 10 goals in 13 matches before Thursday, and junior Alex Fallon led the team with five points on two goals and an assist. What the Wildcats had was Nyamma Nelson, who set a program record for clean sheets by a first-year with 10 last season and came in with 15 career shutouts, fourth in Northwestern history. Her fifth of this season came Sept. 27 in a 2-0 win over Indiana, when first-year midfielder Camryn Freeman scored the first two goals of her career, and it earned Nelson Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Week.
Lineup
GK: Olivia Bodmer
D: Julia Joseph, Morgan Hippeli, Lindsey Hailey, Patricia Tsokos
M: Gabriela Gil, Tommi Valente
F: Lilia Calvert, Reilly McGlinn, Ashley Baran, Marian Dunne
Subs: Sophia Stiles, Charlotte Garcia, Olivia Russomanno, Audrey Cain, Lily Ann Phillips, Sarah Martinez, Amanda Thornton, Madelyn O’Neill, Riley Morris
Mike O’Neill sent out the same eleven that started at Iowa, with the box score again filing four forwards and two midfielders, and two of the three goals came from outside that forward line, Gil from midfield and Hippeli from the back four. Emma Johns, Jayme Malanda and Dina Bojkovic, all used on Sunday, did not appear. Charlotte Garcia did.
The substitution count came down from Sunday’s season high and kept its shape. Rutgers made 29 changes, used nine substitutes and played 20 players, after 39, 11 and 22 at Iowa. The first-half wave came in three blocks of three inside six minutes and 43 seconds. Amanda Thornton, Olivia Russomanno and Sophia Stiles came on for Ashley Baran, Marian Dunne and Hippeli at 27:15, 103 seconds after Hippeli scored. Audrey Cain, Lily Ann Phillips and Sarah Martinez replaced Calvert, Gil and Patricia Tsokos at 33:13, and Riley Morris, Madelyn O’Neill and Garcia replaced Julia Joseph, Reilly McGlinn and Tommi Valente at 33:58. From then to the break, Olivia Bodmer and Lindsey Hailey were the only starters on the field.
All nine came back at 45:00, the second straight match the starting eleven was restored in full at the interval. The second half added 20 more changes, most of them between 63:51 and 83:13. Calvert, Gil, Baran, Hippeli and McGlinn each went off and came back twice. Dunne went off three times.
Moynihan ran his own version, six first-half changes with five undone at 45:00 and 18 substitutions in all, while Nelson, Maddie Finnerty, Naomi Lofthouse and Holland Carey went the full 90. His most consequential change came at 25:32, Freeman on for Sarah O’Donnell at the same mark Hippeli scored.
Hailey, yet again, was the only outfield Scarlet Knight who never came off.
Two Goals in Seven Minutes, Then Nine Changes in Seven More
Rutgers went at Nelson from the opening whistle and took four shots in the first 16 minutes. Tsokos went bottom left at 3:23 for the first save of the night, Baran went bottom right at 9:14, and Calvert’s shot at 13:17 went bottom center, where Nelson saved it again. Calvert was called for a foul at 8:19 and McGlinn at 10:44, Megan Norkett was whistled for Northwestern’s only foul of the half at 14:03, and Tsokos put one off target at 15:06.
Rutgers won their first corner at 17:14 and kept the ball in the Northwestern end. Dunne’s shot at 18:13 was blocked, and 25 seconds later Gil finished bottom left off her right foot, with Dunne and Valente credited with the assists. It was Rutgers’ sixth shot of the night and the first one Nelson could not reach.
Calvert was called for another foul at 20:20, Bodmer took goal kicks at 21:23 and 22:22, and Northwestern did not register a shot until Elle Phillips put one off target at 23:53. Rutgers answered with three attempts in 36 seconds. Baran went top left at 24:56 and Nelson saved it, McGlinn’s shot at 25:07 was blocked, and Rutgers won a corner at 25:11. Twenty-one seconds later Hippeli finished top left, assisted by Joseph and Calvert.
Rutgers led 2-0 at 25:32, and Northwestern had taken one shot.
Dunne put one off target at 26:53, and then the bench emptied the way it has all season. The first block at 27:15 took off Dunne, who had assisted the first goal, and Hippeli, who had scored the second, and the next three minutes were the scrappiest of the half. Thornton fouled at 28:28, Gil at 28:44 and Tsokos at 29:58, three Rutgers fouls in 90 seconds, and Norkett’s shot at 30:05 went bottom center for Bodmer’s first save. McGlinn answered at 30:26, also bottom center, and Nelson made her fifth save of the half.
Neither team took another shot before the break. The second and third Rutgers blocks came at 33:13 and 33:58, and Moynihan made his changes around them, Kate Hennen for Keira Wagner at 33:13, Olivia Elliott for Zimmerman at 37:04, and Mary Stroebel and Gabby Anderson for Phillips and Fallon at 40:23. The last 14 minutes were throw-ins, goal kicks and Northwestern’s only corner of the half, at 41:25, which came to nothing.
Rutgers outshot Northwestern 11-2 in the first half, put seven on target to one and won two corners to one. Rutgers committed six fouls to Northwestern’s one. Neither side was flagged offside. There were no cards. Nelson made five saves. Bodmer made one.
97 Seconds, Then 19 Minutes of Hanging On
Northwestern restored five of its own starters at the reset. Finnerty and Carey fouled inside the first 76 seconds, Dunne went bottom center at 46:58 for Nelson’s sixth save, and O’Donnell had a shot blocked at 48:53.
At 50:06 Zimmerman finished top left off a Norkett assist, Northwestern’s first shot on target in just over 20 minutes of playing time.
It stood as the margin for 97 seconds. Calvert went top right off her left foot at 51:43, unassisted, for her fourth goal of the season to go with the assist on Hippeli’s. It turned out to be the winner.
Rutgers went looking for a fourth, with McGlinn off target at 52:17, corners at 53:32 and 58:02, Baran off target at 58:19 and Tsokos blocked at 59:21, and Valente went top center at 61:41 for Nelson’s seventh save.
The match turned at 63:51. Rutgers made three changes, Stiles for Baran, Thornton for Dunne and Russomanno for Hippeli, Northwestern made two, Freeman for Norkett and Liz Cardwell for Phillips, and Calvert was booked for unsporting behavior, the only card of the night. Northwestern got a free kick out of it, and Finnerty’s shot went top right, where Bodmer saved it. Carey went bottom center at 64:26 and Rutgers cleared it, credited as a team save.
McGlinn went bottom center at 65:19 for Nelson’s eighth save, Russomanno fouled Carey at 68:14, and Calvert’s shot at 69:09 went bottom center for Nelson’s ninth. It was the last shot Rutgers put on target. Cardwell answered at 69:55, bottom left, and Bodmer saved it.
Then Gabriela Gil went down injured, again. Northwestern scored immediately after, at 70:59, with Freeman finishing top left off her right foot from a Fallon assist while Rutgers was down to 10 on that side of the field, and that is where the only real argument of the night came from. Martinez replaced Gil at the same mark. It was the third goal of Freeman’s college career, all three in her last two matches.
Three goals had become one, and there were 19 minutes left.
Cain came on for Calvert at 71:46, Fallon put one off target at 74:06 and Northwestern was flagged offside at 76:19. Calvert went back on at 77:23 and put one off target at 78:16, Rutgers’ last shot of the night, and Rutgers was caught offside at 79:20.
At 80:33 Anderson shot bottom center with Bodmer caught outside her box, and Hailey got there first. From where I was standing she cleared it perfectly and ended up sprawled across the turf doing it. The box score files it as a team save. It was easily the play of the match.
Northwestern did not stop. It won a corner at 80:39, Finnerty went off target at 80:47, and Carey’s shot at 81:28 went top right, where Bodmer saved it. Gil came back on at 80:51 with Hippeli, and Freeman had a shot blocked at 82:57. That was four Northwestern shots and a corner in two minutes and 24 seconds. Northwestern won its last corner at 85:55, Freeman went bottom center at 86:43 for Bodmer’s fifth save, and the last three minutes were Wildcat throw-ins that went nowhere.
Northwestern outshot Rutgers 12-9 in the second half, put eight on target to five and split the corners two apiece. Rutgers was flagged offside twice and Northwestern once. Rutgers committed four fouls to Northwestern’s three and took the only card. Bodmer made four saves and the team was credited with two more. Nelson made four.
Two weeks ago the Blackout ended with a goal at 84:22 and a 1-0 loss to UCLA. The Pinkout ended with three goals before the hour and a defender on the turf at 80:33 making sure the night
did not end the same way.
Rutgers is 4-5-3 and 3-4-0, with 16 goals scored and 17 conceded through 12 matches, and it has edged back ahead of its opponents on the season in shots, 159-155. Calvert has four goals and three assists as a freshman.
Rutgers stays at Yurcak for Nebraska on Sunday, Oct. 11, at 1 p.m., before going on the road to Penn State on Oct. 17. Northwestern goes on to Maryland on Sunday. Two wins in three matches is not a turnaround yet, but it is the first stretch all season in which the results have looked like the shot chart.
Northwestern came in with six shutouts.
Rutgers needed 33 minutes to make sure there would not be a seventh.
