(Editor’s note: Carroll College athletics release)
HELENA — A furious rally in the final two minutes by the Carroll College Saints women’s soccer team netted the squad a 3-3 tie with No. 19 Eastern Oregon on Sunday in front of 250 fans at Nelson Stadium.
Carroll (1-5-1, 0-0-1) trailed 3-1 with less than two minutes remaining before Talya Vaira scored on a follow-up after a penalty kick and then chipped a ball from far outside the box to tie the game.
“Nobody likes ties,” Saints head coach Dave Thorvilson said. “I don’t think you’re ever satisfied with the result. Whenever you’re down 3-1 and you come back, you have to be super excited about what that can mean for your team.”
The Saints struck first one minute into the game when Kirsten Girolami snuck a ball into the far left corner of the net.
The lead was short lived, however, as EOU (4-1-1, 0-1-1) responded with a spree of three goals by three different scorers in the first half.
The Mountaineers 3-1 held until the 89th minute when Vaira rebounded her own PK miss to bring the margin to one.
Forty seconds later, Valya struck again to tie the game.
Once in overtime, the Saints leveraged the setting sun and slight breeze to fire up three shots in the first period, though none broke through.
“If we won the coin toss, I wanted to go to this goal knowing it would be probably be the best chance,” Thorvilson said. “It’s hard to see. There’a a bit of breeze. You take every advantage you can get.”
The Saints couldn’t squeeze another goal through in overtime, but earned a point in conference with the tied game.
“That’s the No. 19 team in the country,” Thorvilson said. “We started out on fire, then kinda sat back and it took us awhile to get back into it. We definitely earned it. To get a result against them should have us in a good spot to get ready to go on the road.”
The Saints travel to Corban and Northwest Christian next weekend.
