Al Case, Ashland Daily Photo.
Raiders, Yotes find offense late in 1-1 draw
SOU Sports Information
ASHLAND – Michala Denn's first goal at Southern Oregon couldn't have come at a better time in a 1-1 Cascade Conference draw with College of Idaho on Friday afternoon at Raider Stadium.
The offense on both sides was unassisted and unconventional, and opened up when freshman reserve Kaitlyn Ramon broke a scoreless tie in the 83rd minute with her first goal as a Yote. With 1 minute 58 seconds left in regulation, Denn struck back by taking on the defense herself to salvage a point for the Raiders.
C of I (3-3-4 overall, 2-2-2 CCC) has already tied more games than any CCC team in three years with six regular-season games left to play. The Raiders went to 5-3-2 overall and 2-1-2 in conference play heading into Saturday's 1:30 p.m. matchup with sixth-ranked Eastern Oregon, which took its first loss on Friday at Oregon Tech.
The game only featured five shots on goal before Ramon put the Yotes in front. After dribbling into the box with a defender on her back, momentum caused her to fall near the goal and onto the ball. When she got up, the ball was still at her side, and she shot between two defenders and off the fingertips of SOU keeper Jessie Selby with just enough juice to get past the line.
Denn's goal was nearly as odd. The junior defender – a North Medford High product and George Fox transfer – tried to go through the defense on her way to the box but had the ball knocked away twice. It went to a teammated the first time, and the second time it deflected off of a Yote's foot and bounced back to Denn, who went in from 20 yards out to beat a couple more defenders and set up a four-yard shot that snuck inside the right post.
The Raiders avoided being shut out in back-to-back CCC regular-season games for the first time since 2012.
They controlled the action with nine of the overtime session's 11 shots, but C of I keeper Kylee Atkins made four saves in that time to preserve the draw. She finished with eight to Selby's four.
SOU's Baylee Touey led all players with three on-target shots.