Montana falls, still advances

Sunday, October 23

Ogden, Utah

1 PM

Montana

6-6-6, 3-4-1BSC

Weber State

5-11-0, 4-4-0BSC

Montana

Weber State

Photo by: Derek Johnson

10/23/2022 4:33:00 PM | Soccer

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana soccer team wrapped up its regular-season schedule with a 2-0 loss at Weber State on Sunday afternoon on a cold, windy afternoon at Wildcat Soccer Field in Ogden, Utah.

Despite the loss, the Grizzlies (6-6-6, 3-4-1 BSC) advance to their ninth consecutive Big Sky Conference tournament, their league-record 21st overall.

Montana, the No. 6 seed, will face No. 3 Portland State on Wednesday, Nov. 2, at 11 a.m. in a quarterfinal match in Greeley, Colo.

The Grizzlies lost 1-0 to the Vikings when the teams met in Hillsboro, Ore., on Sept. 25. PSU enters the postseason without a win in its final three regular-season matches, with seven goals allowed.

The winner will move on to face No. 2 Idaho on Friday, Nov. 4, at 11 a.m. The tournament championship match will be played at noon on Sunday, Nov. 6.

Montana has won the tournament three times in the last four years but will be an underdog this time around, particularly if the Grizzlies don't rectify some issues that emerged in Sunday's loss.

The Wildcats (5-11-0, 4-4-0 BSC) scored in the 21st and 57th minutes to hand Montana its first multiple-goal loss against a Big Sky opponent under fifth-year coach Chris Citowicki.

"If we start a game in playoffs the way we started today, there is no business of us even being there," he said. "We have to take a good, hard look in the mirror. Is that how we want to play?

"It's just completely unacceptable the way we started, the lack of attention to details, people doing someone else's job instead of doing their own."

Montana faced a team needing a win to secure its own tournament spot and did so without three key players of its own.

McKenzie Kilpatrick and Delaney Lou Schorr, the Big Sky's leading goal-scorer, missed the game because of injury. Allie Larsen missed the first game of her career to travel out of state.

Weber State scored the game-winner in the 21st minute when a cross was headed in by Alexis Simpson for her second goal of the season.

Morgan Furmaniak, named the Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week on Tuesday, added an insurance goal at 56:08.

With the ball rolling toward Montana goalkeeper Camellia Xu and a Griz defender trying to shield Furmaniak, the forward poked the ball free from between them and scored her fifth goal of the season.

"We continue to shoot ourselves in the foot. Things like that have to stop happening," said Citowicki. "Thank goodness we have some time to deep dive into all of this stuff and try to fix it.

"Today was the worst start to a game we've had in a really long time. We deserved to be down. We need to be a lot better if we want to be successful in playoffs."

Montana outshot Weber State 16-10 and put eight of those shots on goal. Mekell Moss made eight saves to record her third shutout of the season, her second of the weekend.

Kathleen Aitchison and Kayla Rendon Bushmaker both took three shots for Montana, which finishes below .500 in league for the first time since 2013.

Northern Arizona won its seventh consecutive match on Sunday, 3-0 at home over Portland State, and will take the No. 1 seed into Greeley. Idaho is the No. 2 seed and also will get a bye to the semifinals.

After Montana and Portland State open the tournament on Nov. 2, No. 4 Sacramento State will face No. 5 Weber State in the second quarterfinal.