Western soccer falls to Northwest 1-0 in sudden death

By Mika Cummins

September 21, 2012

K.C. Ramsell tries to score against Northwest Missouri State on Friday, Sept. 21.

Missouri Western suffered a heartbreaking loss in double overtime to rival Northwest Missouri State, 1-0.

The Griffons hosted their conference rival, the Bearcats, for their first MIAA home game of the season on Friday, Sept. 21. Coming off of a win in overtime versus Lindenwood, the team was ready to to face its archrivals and duke it out for bragging rights.

In the entirety of their program history, Western has only beaten Northwest once. Prior to the game, senior goalkeeper Kelly Voigts said this game was more than normal.

“It is our time to change things and we are willing to do, whatever it takes,” Voigts said. “I mean, you want to win every game, but this game has a little something extra.”

Both teams fought relentlessly throughout the game to put themselves on the scoreboard, but neither of them could get the ball to the back of the net. At halftime and the end of regulation, neither team had managed to score.

The teams would play over 100 minutes of scoreless soccer before Northwest’s Elizabeth Walde shot from 12 yards out to end the game in double overtime.

“This is a game we look forward to every year,” coach Chad Edwards said. “It’s heartbreaking, for our seniors especially.”

Western had 5 shots with 4 on goal, while the Northwest had 12 shots with 6 being on goal. Sophomore Katie Kempf managed to get off 2 shots of her own before an injury sidelined her for the remainder of the game. Voigts had 5 saves on the night.

The Griffons come up short in the second overtime to Northwest, losing 1-0. They fall to 3-4 on the season and 1-2 in MIAA conference play.

“This is our archrival. It’s a tough loss; two even teams battling it out,” Edwards said. “We just made a major mistake in the back and it hurts. I think throughout the game, we were just struggling to find ourselves. At times we did, and when we did we were very successful but we have to play for 90 minutes and we just didn’t do that. It’s tough for all of us, we deserve this game just as much as they did. This one is going to sting for a while. But we’ll learn from it and get better and come back next Friday ready to go.”

The girls will face MIAA newcomer Central Oklahoma at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 28 at Spratt Stadium.