Griz collect signature victory

Sunday, September 12

Missoula, Mont.

1 PM

Montana

3-4-0

Boise State

5-2-0

Boise State

Montana

Photo by: Derek Johnson

9/12/2021 5:50:00 PM | Soccer

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

Fourth-year Montana soccer coach Chris Citowicki's teams have won two Big Sky Conference regular-season championships, twice won the league's tournament title and two times have played in the NCAA tournament.

But his coaching resume was still lacking that one certain win, that out-of-league, signature victory. He got it on Sunday afternoon when his Grizzlies knocked off 5-1-0 Boise State 1-0 at South Campus Stadium in Missoula.

The Broncos (5-2-0), skilled and athletic from end line to end line, played at the high level one would expect from one of the top programs in the Mountain West Conference.

And on this day, Montana (3-4-0) matched it and got the better of Boise State when freshman Delaney Lou Schorr bodied in freshman Bella O'Brien's corner kick in the 64th minute for the match's only goal.

"All year we've talked about a theme of 'why not?' Why not us? Why can't we win these types of games?" Citowicki said after the match.

"We reminded them of that at halftime. We've been in this position so many times, at halftime, 0-0 against a good team. It ends now. 'Why not' has to start being actions, so complete the game. Full focus, full concentration, wait for your moment."

It almost didn't happen, at least for Schorr. When Montana created a corner kick in the 64th minute, it was assistant coach Ashley Herndon who urged Citowicki, his mind understandably on bigger-picture things, to quickly sub the powerful 5-foot-10 forward, built for these moments, into the match.

It changed everything.

O'Brien ripped a corner that didn't even get 10 feet off the ground, so well it was struck. It bounced past the first group of players to a Boise State defender playing the goal line. She didn't clear it cleanly and Schorr and three Broncos all fell across the goal line, along with the ball.

"I might have got a stomach on it for all I know," said Schorr. "It was just a mosh pit. I don't really know what happened. Like (assistant coach J. Landham) said, goals don't have to be beautiful. You just have to get something on it."

Had either team won 1-0, it would have been a fair result. That's how evenly the match was played, with Boise State holding 52 percent of the possession to Montana's 48, the Broncos owning a 10-9 advantage in shots but the Grizzlies putting four of theirs on goal to BSU's three.

"It was two good teams going up against each other," said Citowicki.

It was a match in which neither team controlled anything. Instead both had to be good from goalkeeper to forwards in a free-flowing match, and both were.

Molly Massman and Quinn Peacock both put dangerous shots on goal in the first half. In the second half, after Montana had grabbed a 1-0 lead and with Boise State pressing, it was the Grizzlies' back line that rose to the occasion, notably Molly Quarry, Caitlin Rogers and Allie Larsen.

Montana controlled that section of turf 10 to 20 yards in front of goalkeeper Camellia Xu, where possession can go from threatening to downright dangerous. Time and again, a Bronco entered that piece of field, only for a Grizzly to come up with the ball, headed the other direction.

The final 20 minutes wasn't Montana playing on its heels, hoping it could sneak out with a victory. It was the Grizzlies in attack mode, looking for more.

"It was a full team performance, from the forwards, the way they were pressing and chasing everything, to the midfield, which was outstanding. Cam was great. Everybody was perfect, including the bench. I'm super proud of them. What a performance," said Citowicki.

Xu made three saves to make it back-to-back shutouts for the redshirt freshman.

The victory gives Montana three wins in its last four matches, but Boise State isn't MSU Billings or Texas Southern. Or Cal Poly or Vermont, which were Montana's only other nonconference wins under Citowicki.

This one, this statement performance, meant something more.

"This is probably one of the most satisfying wins, the way we came out and competed," said Taylor Hansen, a senior playing in her fifth season and a veteran of now 79 matches. "Our theme has been 'why not us?' Why can't we compete with these teams?

"It was us believing that we can win this game and that we could do it. It wasn't like, oh, we got lucky. We put really hard work in and got the result we knew we could get."

Montana will get another big-time matchup on Thursday night when the Grizzlies face Long Beach State in California. The Beach are 3-2-1, with a road win at No. 8 Pepperdine last month and a draw at Washington on Saturday.