Grizzly Soccer Regain Their Mojo

The Grizzlies (5-2-2) scored twice in the first half, twice in the second to hand the Fighting Hawks (4-3-2), who lost 3-0 earlier this season against 21-time national champion North Carolina, their worst loss of the season.

Freshman Carly Whalen scored her first goal as a Grizzly in the fifth minute to make it 1-0, Chloe Seelhoff did the same thing in the 90th minute to complete the scoring. In between, Kayla Rendon Bushmaker and Charley Boone both scored their second career goals.

It was a team that looked like it was on a 90-minute power play, fielding 12 instead of 11, Montana out-shooting North Dakota, which defeated Idaho State 2-1 last Thursday, 12-2 in the first half, 23-10 for the game.

The Grizzlies owned 62 percent of the possession in the first half, 56 percent for the game.

It was one week ago that Montana played to a 0-0 draw at Air Force, getting out-shot 28-4. On Sunday, the Grizzlies allowed three first-half goals at Wyoming and had to come back from a 3-1 deficit to get out of Laramie with a 3-3 draw.

It was in the first half of that match that Delaney Lou Schorr, all-region the last two years, was lost for the season with an injury, joining the growing list of players who are banged up, nicked up or not returning to the field at all this season.

"We came off that road trip frustrated with how we attacked. Something was missing. There was a very negative cloud over the team with the injuries," said coach Chris Citowicki.

"We decided to blow everything up, implode it, start again with a slightly different formation to try to get more bodies forward."

It worked in a big way, Montana sending balls to goal minute after minute as the game opened. And most of it was unscripted and unpracticed.

After taking Monday off, per usual, the team lost Tuesday to forest-fire smoke in western Montana, then got 20 minutes on the field on Wednesday before overnight rains cleared the air. It left Citowicki telling his team before the match, let's give it a shot. What do we have to lose?

"I told them before the game, I don't know how this is going to go or what's going to happen. We're going to learn on the fly," he said.

"We problem-solved as the game went on and we have high-level players who played great balls in behind and scored beautiful goals today. Every single one of them was a highlight goal."

Whalen's doubled as memorable as well, her first as a Grizzly in her first start at Montana.

Less than five minutes into the match, Riley O'Brien, also making her first start of the season, crossed the ball to Whalen in space at the top of the box. Whalen took one touch and scored from 18 yards out, center of the goal, right under the crossbar.

"Chris had a pretty deep conversation with all of us (freshmen) and told us we need to step up," said Whalen. "I expect more from myself and want to help this team as much as I can. At the end of the day, it's us helping each other."

Later in the first half, Rendon Bushmaker got the ball on the right side, played parallel to the end line, pinballing off two North Dakota defenders before uncorking a left-footer from 23 yards out that scored inside the left post.

If Montana needed an insurance goal, it came less than 10 minutes into the second half. Whalen took a corner kick that was headed away by a North Dakota defender. Boone collected the ball in space and scored from 23 yards out as well, into the top-left corner.

It was her second career goal, her first coming in 2021, the game-winner in the 87th minute in Montana's 1-0 victory over Sacramento State in the Big Sky semifinals in Greeley, Colo.

"Corner kicks are usually the only time I'm up the field. It was fun," said Boone, Montana's co-captain and center back who played all 90 minutes once again on Thursday, as she's done every match this season.

"This was a good turnaround, a reset point for us. We changed formation due to some injuries, and I feel like we were pretty rejuvenated and excited to come out here."

Seelhoff completed the scoring in the game's final minute, getting played behind North Dakota's back line by Whalen, who had herself a three-point game.

"It was an amazing performance, not a freshman's performance," Citowicki said of Whalen. "Ashlyn Sandow, Hayley Bass, that's three freshmen in the starting lineup and they finally did not play like freshmen. They matured out of that."

That was more than enough offensive support for Bayliss Flynn, who made five saves in goal for her third shutout in four starts.

"We put it all together in this game," said Citowicki. "It was a nice, fresh start. We need to keep building on it."

Montana will wrap up its nonconference schedule with a big-time match-up against regionally ranked Boise State next Thursday at 4 p.m. at South Campus Stadium.