By JOEL CARLSON for GoGriz.com | Photos by WILLIAM MUNOZ
Hawaii built a 2-0 lead and held off a spirited second-half rally by Montana to post a 2-1 victory over the Grizzlies Sunday afternoon at South Campus Stadium in the final match of the Montana Invitational.
Senior Brooke Moody converted a penalty kick in the 65th minute to cut Hawaii’s lead in half, and Montana took 13 of its season-high 19 shots in the second half, but the Grizzlies were unable to score the equalizer.
“First of all, I thought it was a fantastic game,” said UM coach Mark Plakorus. “Both teams played at an extremely high level. The pace of the game was very, very high, and that made for an entertaining match.”
Montana got after Hawaii early, with the Grizzlies earning the first of their season-high 10 corner kicks in the opening minute. But all their early chances were stopped by Hawaii keeper Erica Young, and the Rainbow Wahine would be the team to open the scoring in the 25th minute.
UM vs Hawaii. Photo by ©William Munoz
Storm Kenui slalomed through a number of Griz defenders, and her shot was saved by Griz sophomore Kailey Norman. The rebound went to Sonest Furtado, who scored her fourth goal of the season to make it 1-0.
Hawaii, which entered the match with 20 goals through its first nine matches, went up 2-0 in the 58th minute when Ashley Haruki scored her first goal of the season inside the right post from 10 yards out.
“We made two mistakes in the back today, that was it, but that’s all it takes when you’re playing a team that scores the way they do. Outside of that, I felt like we did a nice job controlling most of the game,” said Plakorus.
Less than two minutes later junior Mackenzie Akins hit the crossbar. Five minutes after that Akins was fouled in the box. Moody took the penalty kick and scored her first goal of the season and third of her career.
The Grizzlies, who had six players take at least two shots, continued to generate opportunities, but Young kept Montana off the scoreboard the rest of the match. She finished with six saves.
“I thought we were dangerous the entire game and created a lot of opportunities. Their keeper made a number of fantastic saves, three or four game-saving type plays,” said Plakorus.
“Sometime it just doesn’t go your way, but I couldn’t be more proud of how we played today and how we competed. I thought we played extremely well.”
Hawaii finished its Big Sky Conference road trip with a 3-1 record. Last weekend the Rainbow Wahine won 4-3 at Weber State and lost 5-4 at Idaho State. They defeated Eastern Washington 3-1 on Friday.
Montana will open league matches next week when it hosts Weber State on Friday and Idaho State on Sunday.
“I’m very happy with the team we have right now. I think all the games we played in the nonconference portion of our schedule served a great purpose for what we have ahead of us,” said Plakorus.
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