IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa had played five Big Ten matches this season and won none of them. The Hawkeyes needed 71 seconds after Rutgers’ third wave of substitutions to change that.
Berit Parten finished top left off her left foot at 35:24 on Sunday afternoon at the Iowa Soccer Complex, and it held up for a 1-0 Hawkeyes win. Mike O’Neill had made eight changes in the five minutes and 13 seconds before it, four at 29:00, one at 33:04 and three at 34:13. When the ball went in, Olivia Bodmer, Lindsey Hailey
and Tommi Valente were the only members of the starting eleven still on the field, and Valente came off at the same mark.
The Scarlet Knights had a week to sit on their best result of the year, a 3-1 win over No. 14 Wisconsin on Sept. 27 that ended the Badgers’ unbeaten run, and Lilia Calvert was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week two days later for a goal and an assist in it. The running thread of the season has been a shot profile that reads better than the record. Rutgers came into Sunday having outshot its opponents 132-126. It leaves Iowa City outshot 141-139.
Rutgers took one shot in the first half. It was blocked.
Iowa came in having outshot its opponents 236-104, fifth in the country in shots per game and first in total corners with 99. Parten was tied for the Big Ten lead with seven assists and had registered a point in every match in which Iowa scored. Braelynn Galt, a freshman goalkeeper, had six shutouts in her first 12 college matches. Liana Tarasco and Iba Oching played for Canada at the 2026 U-20 Women’s World Cup in Poland, where Canada reached the quarterfinals, and Sofia Bush and Millie Greer are both on the Hermann Trophy watch list.
Sunday went exactly to type. Fifteen shots, 10 corners, a goal from Parten and a seventh shutout for Galt.
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, Olivia Russomanno, Audrey Cain, Lily Ann Phillips, Jayme Malanda, Sarah Martinez, Amanda Thornton, Madelyn O’Neill, Riley Morris, Emma Johns, Dina Bojkovic
O’Neill sent out the same eleven that beat Wisconsin, and the with four forwards and two midfielders. Bea Tinoco, part of the first-half wave against Wisconsin, did not appear.
The substitution count set a new high for the season, with 39 changes, 11 substitutes and 22 players. The first half alone had 11. Gabriela Gil was the first off, at 20:15 for Jayme Malanda. Then came four at 29:00, Stiles for McGlinn, Johns for Baran, Russomanno for Dunne and Thornton for Hippeli, then Phillips for Calvert at 33:04, then Cain for Joseph, Madelyn O’Neill for Tsokos and Morris for Malanda at 34:13. Malanda and Johns were both replaced by other substitutes inside 16 minutes of coming on.
The halftime reset was complete this time. Nine changes at 45:00 put all ten outfield starters back on the field together, the first full restoration since Purdue after Stiles stayed on at the interval against both UCLA and Wisconsin. Then came 19 more after the break, including eight at once at 76:20 with Rutgers chasing an equalizer, which put every starter back except Tsokos.
Ward ran a smaller version of the same idea, four first-half changes undone at 45:00 and 15 substitutions in all, with Galt, Oching, Batchadji, Tarasco and Greer going the full 90.
Lindsey Hailey, again, was the only Scarlet Knight in the outfield who never came off.
Iowa Scores 71 Seconds After Rutgers’ Third Wave
Iowa took the first shot of the match at 1:13, Macke going bottom center for Bodmer’s first save, and won its first corner at 2:09. Bush was whistled for fouls on Bodmer at 2:54 and again at 6:32, Tarasco put one off target at 4:50, and Macke had a second attempt blocked at 8:41. By 9:50 Iowa had four corners, three of them inside four minutes.
Rutgers’ only shot of the half came at 11:01, when Valente’s attempt was blocked. It was the last time Rutgers shot before the break, and Iowa went straight back the other way. Parten put one off target at 11:06, and Cino’s shot at 11:21 went bottom right, where Bodmer saved it. Rutgers was caught offside at 14:22, Iowa won a fifth corner at 18:26 and Tarasco went off target again at 19:47.
Gil came off at 20:15. Cino had a shot blocked at 21:13 and Iowa took its sixth corner five seconds later. Neither team took another shot for eight minutes and 29 seconds, Calvert, Malanda and Joseph were each called for fouls between 22:25 and 28:09, and then the bench emptied.
The four Rutgers changes at 29:00 arrived alongside Ward’s first, Reilly Heman on for Alli Macke, and Heman had a shot blocked 42 seconds into her shift. Phillips came on for Calvert at 33:04, the same mark Jada Grove replaced Kylie Cino. Cain, Madelyn O’Neill and Morris came on at 34:13. Iowa took a throw-in at 34:35, and Tarasco had a shot blocked at 34:49.
Thirty-five seconds later Parten scored, top left off her left foot, with no assist credited. Martinez replaced Valente at the same mark, which left Bodmer and Hailey as the only two starters on the field for the rest of the half.
Iowa’s third shot on target of the half was the first one Bodmer could not get to.
Ward took Parten and Lucia Englund off at 39:38 for Berkley Binggeli and Julia Freed, and the Hawkeyes kept coming. Iowa won a seventh corner at 40:36, and Bush went bottom left at 41:52, where Bodmer made her third save. Bojkovic replaced Johns at 44:30, and the half ended on Rutgers throw-ins at 43:32 and 44:32.
The throw-in log tells the same story as the shot chart. Iowa took 27 throw-ins in the first half to Rutgers’ nine, and Bodmer took five goal kicks while Galt took none.
Iowa outshot Rutgers 11-1 in the first half, put four on target to none and won seven corners to none. Rutgers committed five fouls to Iowa’s three and was flagged offside once. There were no cards. Bodmer made three saves. Galt made none.
Galt did not make a save in the first half because there was nothing to save.
Rutgers Wins the Second Half on Shots and Never Gets Level
The reset produced the best stretch Rutgers had all afternoon. Dunne fouled Oching at 47:22, and at 49:10 Calvert went bottom center for Rutgers’ first shot on target, which Galt saved. Dunne put one off target at 49:35, Rutgers won its first corner at 49:42 and was caught offside again at 50:46. Tarasco fouled Joseph at 54:29, and Rutgers won another corner at 55:11, both of its corners coming inside the first 11 minutes of the half.
Iowa answered. Valente fouled Batchadji at 57:58, Iowa won a corner at 58:54, and Cino’s shot at 59:33 went top right, where Bodmer saved it. O’Neill made three changes at 60:15, Bojkovic, Thornton and Russomanno on for Dunne, McGlinn and Baran, and Thornton was called for a foul on Greer 22 seconds later.
The next six minutes were the scrappiest of the match. Parten was booked for unsporting behavior at 61:13 and replaced by Heman at 61:35, with Stiles on for Hippeli in between at 61:25. Gil fouled Englund at 63:33, and Batchadji went bottom center at 64:13 for Bodmer’s fifth and final save. Iowa was called for a handball at 65:47. Gil was booked at 66:12, Tsokos fouled Oching at 66:33, and Thornton was booked at 66:57, the same mark Phillips and Morris replaced Gil and Calvert. That was two fouls and two yellow cards for Rutgers in three minutes and 24 seconds.
Heman put one off target at 68:52, and then Rutgers went after it. Cain and Madelyn O’Neill came on at 70:45 and Martinez at 72:16, and Rutgers took three shots inside five minutes without putting any of them on target, Russomanno at 72:06, Phillips at 76:14 and McGlinn at 77:02, 42 seconds after McGlinn had come back on in the eight-player change at 76:20.
Englund went off target at 78:23, and a VAR review was initiated at 78:34 before play restarted with a Rutgers goal kick. At 80:31 Valente went bottom left and Galt saved it.
It was Rutgers’ seventh shot of the afternoon, and its last.
Stiles was called for fouls on Binggeli at 82:30 and 84:12. Ward sent Macke and Josie Jones back on at 83:40, the same mark Thornton replaced Dunne, and Martinez came on for McGlinn at 85:47. Hailey was booked at 86:35, the third Rutgers yellow of the half, Iowa took corners at 87:22 and 89:46, and that was the match.
Galt took seven goal kicks after halftime, having taken none before it. Rutgers outshot Iowa 6-4 in the second half and matched it 2-2 on target. Iowa won three corners to Rutgers’ two. Rutgers committed eight fouls to Iowa’s one and took all three of its yellow cards. Bodmer made two saves. Galt made two.
There is a version of Sunday the Scarlet Knights can take something from. With the starting eleven back together after halftime, they outshot a team that leads the country in corners and matched it on target, and Bodmer’s five saves kept a team that has outshot its opponents better than two to one at a single goal.
And there is the version on the scoreboard. Iowa outshot Rutgers 15-7, put six on target to two and won 10 corners to two. Rutgers committed 13 fouls to Iowa’s four and took three yellow cards to one. Iowa’s volume would have tested any eleven Rutgers put out, but the goal still came 71 seconds after the eighth change in a little over five minutes, and that is hard to look past.
Rutgers is 3-5-3 and 2-4-0, with 13 goals scored and 15 conceded through 11 matches, and Bodmer has 53 saves on the season. The series with Iowa now stands 7-6 in Rutgers’ favor, but the Hawkeyes have won the last three meetings, and Rutgers has not scored against them since a 2-0 win on Nov. 4, 2021.
Rutgers comes home for two this week, Northwestern on Thursday, Oct. 8, at Yurcak Field and Nebraska on Sunday, Oct. 11, at 1 p.m., before going back on the road to Penn State on Oct. 17. Three of the last six Big Ten matches are at home, and every Big Ten loss so far has been decided by one goal
