Griz pull out Senior Day victory

Sunday, October 20

Missoula, Mont.

Noon

Montana

10-2-4, 4-0-2BSC

Portland State

4-7-4, 2-2-3BSC

Portland State

Montana

Photo by: Ryan Brennecke/ University of Mo

10/20/2024 5:44:00 PM | Soccer

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

Montana coach Chris Citowicki's face had all the emotions on display after Sunday's 1-0 home victory over Portland State, a result that was not set up until a goal by Maddie Ditta in the 84th minute or finalized until the full 90, intense from start to finish, had run off the clock.

There was relief, knowing his team still has a shot at a second consecutive Big Sky Conference championship and that winning it is still under the Grizzlies' control, no matter what anyone else does next week in the final days of the regular season.

There was satisfaction that the result sent his seniors, on their day, off the right way, with another win at South Campus Stadium, where Montana hasn't lost in its last 15 matches, winning 14 of them, drawing once.

But it was the eyes that gave it away, still wet from everything the day meant, the sending off of a senior class for which he expected greatness when they were freshmen in 2021, a senior class that delivered on everything he foresaw.

They were freshmen on Montana's NCAA tournament team in 2021 and by 2023 had made the program their own. Over the last two seasons, the Grizzlies have gone 23-5-7. Thirty-five matches, only five losses.

But it's never that simple in athletics, that storybook, not in a sport like soccer. He hugged Charley Boone during the pre-match ceremonies, the rock who would play all 90 minutes on Sunday, as she's done every match this season, the anchor of a back line that has allowed 19 goals the last two seasons.

Moments later, he made his way to Delaney Lou Schorr, injured at Wyoming, too deep into the season for the two-time all-region forward to appeal for any more eligibility, her Griz career over. For every Boone, there is a Schorr, watching from the sideline, the highs and lows of a four-year class.

There was Jen Estes, a one-year player who has made the most of it, totaling six goals and four assists, including the pass that set up Ditta for Sunday's game-winner. And Ava Samuelson, the best player some of us have ever had the pleasure of watching in a Griz uniform.

And at the end of the line, Skyleigh Thompson, the player who did the impossible, going from Kalispell to Big Sky Offensive MVP. She was injured in Friday's draw at Sacramento State, out maybe for the rest of the season. What do you think that hug was like, her injury and diagnosis so recent, so newly painful?

If Sunday wasn't the literal end – Montana plays at Idaho State and Weber State next week, then hosts the Big Sky tournament in Missoula next month – it was a symbolic end. And those carry weight as well, compounded by the stress of going deep into a must-win match without a goal scored.

Then Ditta scored to break the tension, and all of it, all the emotions of the day, caught up with Citowicki afterwards.

"I can't even find my own words. It's still too emotional for me. It's hard graduating the kids we're graduating. It kills me," he said. "We put a lot of expectations on that group and they got us here."

Coaches and players love to talk about going through the season with blinders on, singularly focused on what the team has in front of it and disregarding what others are doing, what the standings are, who is playing who and what has to happen that would most benefit Montana.

But they know, just like we know. They knew Idaho was probably going to win at home over Idaho State on Sunday (yep, 4-0) and that if Montana played to its third consecutive draw, the Grizzlies would cede control of the chase for a Big Sky title to the Vandals.

So when Sunday's match reached the 77th minute without a goal scored, when Eliza Bentler needed on-field help from the trainer and the clock was stopped, Citowicki brought his team to the sideline and gently reminded them of what was at stake, what everyone knew to be true. Win or else.

"The clock's ticking down, the title's on the line. We're not effing around here. We're not leaving with a tie, not for our seniors, not for anybody," he told them.

Six minutes later, with the clock now under 10 minutes, Samuelson played the ball up the left side to Reagan Brisendine, who played it forward to Estes, who passed into the heart of the field to Ditta, 30 yards in front of goal.

On Friday, in Montana's 0-0 draw at Sacramento State, Ditta took a career-high eight shots, only two of them on goal. On Sunday, she gathered Estes's pass with one defender to clear, took two touches to the right, enough to find space and scored from 20 yards out inside the right post.

"It's sitting there in your gut, this amount of pressure," said Citowicki. "The release from her scoring was nuts on the sideline.

"She got coached quite hard after the Sacramento game for shots taken at incorrect times and from incorrect spots. For her to set her feet and do it correctly and hit the ball the way she did, just beautiful. That was special. A Maddie Ditta Special."

It was Ditta's third goal of the season, the seventh of her career. All seven of her goals have been game-winners, a player who brings it when it's needed most.

"We knew that we needed to win, so it felt so good to have that pressure-off-us moment," she said of her goal. "We needed that goal, especially for our seniors. We wanted to give them our all."

The goal made a winner out of keeper Bayliss Flynn, who improved to 7-0-4 as a starter, almost certainly putting herself on a list of fewer than 20 in NCAA Division I women's soccer history who have gone unbeaten in their first 11 career starts.

And she's never looked better or more confident or comfortable in her choices of when to hold back or when to leave the safety of the goal line and hunt down a loose ball in front of her. She makes her decision, then goes all out, nothing timid about it.

"Every 90 minutes builds confidence and makes me more confident in my first step, whether that's coming out or staying on my line," she said after posting her eighth shutout in 11 matches and improving her goals-against average to 0.45, her save percentage to .904.

"Chris and (goalkeeper coach J. Landham) want me to come off my line more, stay on my front foot and that's what I've been trying to do the last three matches."

While Portland State entered Sunday's match with only four wins on the season, the Vikings had won their last two, including a big 1-0 road win at Northern Arizona under the lights on Friday night, and had lost only once, at Idaho, in more than a month.

Portland State played like it, poised, confident, on Sunday early in the match, keeping Montana under pressure and on the defensive.

"They had a formation that kind of counteracted ours," said Flynn. "It was hard to get out on goal kicks. They really locked us in and were able to get some shots off."

Montana's best chance to break through at a time – the 44th minute – that would have been better for Citowicki's emotions and overall health was a shot off a corner kick by Charley Boone that went off the crossbar.

Ditta put a header off the crossbar deep into the second half, just moments before she struck the game-winner.

"When we went over (to the bench during the injury timeout), (Chris) told us we need to win. That really struck a fire in each and every one of us," said Flynn. "I was going to do what I could control and obviously Maddie did what she can control. It was an amazing goal that lit everyone up."

And sets up some potentially epic final days of the regular season, with Montana and Idaho the only teams in contention to win a Big Sky championship.

Montana (10-2-4, 4-0-2 BSC) will go into the week in second place, two points behind Idaho (11-4-2, 5-1-1 BSC). The Grizzlies have two matches remaining – at Idaho State on Friday, at Weber State on Sunday – the Vandals one – at Northern Colorado on Sunday.

Those three opponents are all tied for last in the Big Sky with 1-4-1 league records. Points are there to be collected, one team to be celebrating next Sunday as Big Sky champion. Buckle up. It has the potential to be an emotional week.