Lady Jackets Score Late for Tie (8/28/05)
Box Score

DURANGO, CO – A Brittney Sandau goal with just 27 seconds left in regulation salvaged a 1-1 tie for the Montana State-Billings women’s soccer team against Fort Lewis on Sunday.  The draw avoided a second-straight loss to start the season, moving the Yellowjackets to 0-1-1 overall.  They wrap up the current road trip on Tuesday when they play at Mesa State College in Grand Junction.

The Yellowjackets dominated many facets of Sunday’s game, but couldn’t put any goals on the board until Sandau’s late heroics.  Sandau, a sophomore from Billings, drove past two defenders before shooting and scoring.  It was her second goal in as many games to start the season. 

MSU Billings out-shot the Skyhawks 28-9 in the game, including a 9-4 advantage during the two overtime periods.  Sandau had five shots in the game with four of them placed on goal.  Junior Ally Stroup (Ojai, CA) fired a dozen shots with six of them on goal.  The Skyhawks’ Jeana Turk had to make 13 saves to keep her team in the game.

“We looked really sharp today,” said Yellowjacket head coach Don Trentham.  “We had a good game on Friday, and we played a better game today.  We thought we deserved to win this game, but give credit to Fort Lewis.  The encouraging thing for us was we kept fighting until the end when we were down a goal.  We had our chances in overtime—we hit the crossbar and had a couple shots saved—but we were just a bit unlucky.”

Yellowjacket goalkeeper Megan Plank (Jr., Phoenix, AZ) made seven saves in the game giving her 14 saves in two games.  She entered the season needing just 20 saves to tie Gretchen Kaus for the school record for career saves.  Plank will need six saves in Tuesday’s game at Mesa State to tie the record.

The Skyhawks scored the first goal of the game when Becky Gilmore launched the ball into the box from 35 yards out.  The ball bounced over Plank’s head and into the net.  Fort Lewis moved to 1-0-1 overall.