Griz drop second straight

Sunday, September 10

Missoula, Mont.

1 PM

Montana

5-2-1

Georgia Southern

5-2-0

Georgia Southern

Montana

Photo by: UM Photo/Tommy Martino

9/10/2023 4:38:00 PM | Soccer

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

In the sport of soccer, your fortunes can change just like that.

For 20 minutes on Sunday afternoon at South Campus Stadium, Montana played some of its best soccer of the season. The Grizzlies controlled possession and tempo, and peppered their opponent with shots, including one that went off the crossbar.

Then Georgia Southern's Sade Heinrichs took a seemingly harmless shot from distance and nothing was the same again.

The ball got through the outstretched hands of Montana's goalkeeper, giving the Eagles, last year's Sun Belt Conference regular-season champions, a 1-0 lead and flipped what had been happening on the field in the other direction.

Georgia Southern (5-2-0) would go on to outshoot Montana 20-12 for the match, putting eight shots on goal to the home team's two.

"I think it was in our hands until the goal happened," said Griz coach Chris Citowicki. "The rhythm of the game changed at that point in time. The game kind of wobbled away from us a little bit. I think we could have responded a lot better to being scored on."

Georgia Southern carried its emboldened play into the second half, outshooting Montana 12-4 over the final 45 minutes, holding 54 percent of the possession.

The Grizzlies' only shots on goal in the match came in the 48th and 90th minutes.

"They came out and pressed us better, locked us in more. It wasn't until later on that we started getting our looks," said Citowicki.

Montana played to a frustrating 1-0 home loss to Colorado State on Thursday at South Campus Stadium. Whatever Citowicki told his team in the days between matches worked. To a point. The Grizzlies came out flying on Sunday.

Maysa Walters took three shots in the opening 16 minutes, including one that hit the crossbar.

"It was a very good response from Thursday," said Citowicki. "That was the best 20 minutes I've seen us play all year. I thought we were outstanding. Too bad we weren't rewarded.

"That's what we talked about at halftime. We can't all of a sudden lose our focus and stop controlling the game the way we were. We were fully in control that first 20 minutes. It was just a matter of time until we were going to score. We lost focus and they did a very good job coming back into it."

Erin Wilkins took five shots for the Eagles, putting four on goal. Quinn Wilson made two saves to improve to 5-2-0.

Walters and Skyleigh Thompson had Montana's lone shots on goal.

Montana (5-2-1) will host Miami (Ohio) (3-3-1) on Thursday at 5 p.m. at South Campus Stadium and close out its nonconference schedule with a match at Oregon State (3-2-2) next Sunday in Corvallis, Ore.