Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
Montana
Wildcat soccer tops Griz 1-0 on Senior Day
10/18/2015 10:43:00 PM | Women's Soccer
OGDEN – The red-hot Wildcats' climb continues.
Freshman midfielder Madison Garlock scored in the 27th minute and the Weber State University women's soccer team clamped down defensively over the final 63 minutes to down Montana 1-0 on Sunday afternoon at Wildcat Soccer Field.
The win is the Wildcats third straight, and fourth in the last five matches, moving Weber State to 4-3-0 in Big Sky play and 8-7-1 overall.
“The girls played good defensively today and our goalkeeper came up big in some key moments,” Weber State coach Tim Crompton said. “We had a few opportunities to put the game away, but give Montana credit, they made it difficult on us.”
Garlock's fourth career goal came midway through the first half after senior outside defender Shaylee Petersen brought the ball up the left side of the field and blasted a cross through the box to Garlock, who was running diagonally with her defender into the right side, and Garlock knocked the ball back across the goal mouth and just inside the left post to make it 1-0.
From there it was up to the Wildcat defense, spearheaded by freshman goalkeeper Nikki Pittman and a veteran backline of Petersen, senior central defenders Brecken Holbrook and Marissa Cook, and redshirt junior outside defender Kellyn Ashby to hold the Grizzlies (3-4-1 Big Sky, 6-9-2 overall) from gaining the equalizer.
Pittman's biggest play of the afternoon came in the 80th minute, when Montana's veteran senior Mackenzie Akins pounced on a misplayed clearance between the Wildcat defense and drove one-on-one against the freshman netminder.
Pittman successfully charged out and picked the ball of Akins feet to snuff out the attempt and preserve the shutout.
The clean sheet is Weber State's first in Big Sky Conference play this season and third of the year overall.
The match marked the final home contest of the season and the final home match in the careers of eight Wildcats – Petersen, Holbrook, Cook, senior defensive midfielder Abbey Clayton, senior forward Stacy Bair, senior central midfielder Joanna Matyjasik, and team manager London Hunt.
The eight were all members of Weber State's 2013 Big Sky Conference championship team, and many rank inside Weber State's career record books.
With the home portion of the Wildcats' season now complete, Weber State will head out on the road for its final three regular season matches looking to secure a berth in the six-team Big Sky Conference postseason tournament next month.
Weber State's season-ending road trip begins on Friday in Cedar City, Utah, against in-state rival Southern Utah, and then continues on Sunday against Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Ariz. The Wildcats will wrap up the regular season on Oct. 30 against rival Idaho State in Pocatello, Idaho.
