Griz battle Beavers to scoreless draw

Sunday, September 17

Corvallis, Ore.

1 PM (MT)

Montana

6-2-2

Oregon State

3-2-3

Montana

Oregon State

Photo by: John Sieber via UM Athletics

9/17/2023 4:33:00 PM | Soccer

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

After playing to a 2-2 tie with Ohio State and defeating Oklahoma in a neutral-site match earlier this season, Montana soccer coach Chris Citowicki had a not-so-subtle message for his team before Sunday's road match against Oregon State in Corvallis, the Grizzlies' third Power 5 matchup of the nonconference.

You've earned the right to walk onto Paul Lorenz Field today believing you can win.

"We didn't tie Ohio State and beat Oklahoma because of a miracle, like the planets aligned and somehow the Grizzlies won a game," he told his team before it played to an entertaining, up-tempo 0-0 draw with the Beavers (3-2-3).

"You're playing well against these teams and getting results because you're of this level now. Take the field today knowing we're of this level and that we're going to perform at this level. There has to be a confidence to our play. I thought they did brilliantly with that today."

Montana (6-2-2) jumped on – and raced past – Oregon State from the opening touch, with Skyleigh Thompson, who scored two goals in Thursday's 4-0 home win over Miami (Ohio), serving as redheaded catalyst.

Abby Gearhart sent an early shot off the crossbar and the Beavers did all they could just to get the ball out of Montana's attacking third.

The back half of the opening 45 minutes belonged to the Beavers, as superbly skilled forward McKenna Martinez, who had 25 goals in 45 collegiate matches going into Sunday's game, got more and more involved and had more and more touches.

The second half was back and forth until Montana put a number of quality scoring chances together late in the match.

Thompson got behind the defense and was stopped on a kick save by OSU goalkeeper Hailey Coll. Audrey Teague took a free kick from 20 yards out that Coll saved on the line after getting shielded by her teammates. And Delaney Lou Schorr took a final-seconds shot that Coll saved into the crossbar.

"I'm super impressed with it. It was a game against a good team, so it was going to ebb and flow," said Citowicki. "I think we lost a little bit of control in the first half and a bit in the second half, but overall I think we created the better looks.

"We had the chances that could have won the game. Some days they go inn, other days they don't. We'll take the 0-0."

Montana got outshot 16-12, with 11 of those coming off the foot of Martinez, the most against the Grizzlies since Washington State's Morgan Weaver took 11 in the Cougars' 5-1 win over Montana in the opening round of the 2018 NCAA tournament.

Martinez is scary good in space – and even when she's defended tightly – able to stop and cut like few players the Grizzlies will see this season.

The halftime adjustment was to have Montana's holding midfielder be ready for Martinez to drive toward the end line, then stop and cut back for a shot or a pass, both of which were dangerous outcomes the Grizzlies wanted to avoid.

In the end, of Martinez's 11 shots, only two were put on goal.

"In the first half, she destroyed us on the cut. Going into the second half, the message was that as she's driving at the outside back, knowing she wants to cut, we're going to be there and we have to block those shots," Citowicki said.

"She got some off but we blocked a handful of them. The way we responded to that, I thought it was very intelligent from our players."

Montana had more shots on goal, five to Oregon State's four, and created two more corner kicks than the Beavers, but after 90 minutes neither team could crack the other in the final nonconference match for both programs.

The Grizzlies will take six wins into league play, the first time that's happened since the 2000 season.

"They are a Pac-12 team, a Power 5 team and a good one," said Citowicki. "They were going to have chances, we were going to have chances and whoever scores was going to get it done.

"I was impressed with the amount of time we kind of dominated the game. Then they responded well. At the end of the day, for it to be 0-0 was a very entertaining tie."

Redshirt freshman Ashlyn Dvorak, sure-handed as usual, on shots and dangerous crosses, made four saves to record her sixth shutout of the season and drop her goals-against average to 0.50 and up her save percentage to .881.

Montana won't play again until opening its Big Sky Conference schedule at Eastern Washington on Thursday, Sept. 28.