Upper Iowa and Wayne State College battled to a scoreless tie at the end of regulation but the Wildcats closed the game just a minute into overtime to claim the 1-0 road victory over the Peacocks.
Sophia Ketchmark's game-winner at the 91:14 mark gave WSC its second win over Upper Iowa in as many years and first victory at Pattison Field in program history. Wayne State improved to 3-6-1 overall and 3-4-1 in the NSIC while Upper Iowa fell to 2-9 overall and 1-7 in the conference.
Upper Iowa started the game with lots of offensive pressure that kept the ball in the Peacock's scoring third for much of the first period.
Jordyn Ostrowski claimed the first of four shot attempts by the Peacocks early in the 11
th minute but Wildcat's goalkeeper Alyssa Bagley turned it away. The Peacocks biggest scoring threat came from
Laura Murray in the 36
th minute who drove in from the left side and fired a long shot off from 20 yards out that went just right of the mark. UIU took twice as many shots as the Wildcats in a 4-2 advantage going into the half.
Locked at 0-0, the teams continued to battle and were held to a combined three shots the entire second period thanks to tough defenses on both sides of the ball. Shortly into overtime, the Peacocks fouled the Wildcats which eventually set up the winning score. Alexis Strothers took the free kick for WSC and
Natalie Rudrud attempted to scoop the ball up, but the slippery ball fell to the ground behind the diving keeper. Unfortunately for the Peacocks, the foot of Sophia Ketchmark was right there to tap the ball into the open net for the win.
UIU finished with five total shots and four on frame, while Wayne State was limited to only two shots on goal in five attempts. Offside calls hurt the Peacocks in the loss as they were called for four compared to their opponents zero.
Upper Iowa stays put in Fayette to face the Augustana Vikings on Sun., Oct. 7 at 1 p.m. The Vikings (7-3-1, 6-2-0 NSIC) also suffered an overtime loss in Friday's contest, falling 2-1 to Winona State University.
