No. 10 Women’s Soccer Cruises Past Purdue, 3-0

Rutgers women’s soccer improved to 11-1-1 (3-1-1) with a shutout over Purdue (3-8-1, 0-4-1) on a picture-perfect Sunday afternoon at Folk Field in West Lafayette, Indiana. Sophomore back Emily Mason led the way with her first collegiate brace (that’s two goals for novices like me) before halftime as the Knights cruised to a relatively easy victory.

1st Half

The Knights got the party started early in the 5th minute when Sam Kroeger smoked a pass from Kylie Daigle past Boilermakers keeper Kailey Kimball for a quick 1-0 lead.

As we have seen this season, when the Knights get on top early, they are awful tough to stop. In the 12th minute, Purdue keeper Kimball fumbled a corner kick from Kylie Daigle and the opportunistic Emily Mason struck the loose ball in easily to put RU up 2-0.

Mason’s 2nd goal would come in minute 36 on a nice feed by Becci Fluchel and grow the lead 3-nil. Rutgers would control play in the first half, outshooting Purdue 20-3 with ample scoring opportunities.

2nd Half

Purdue came out with more purpose and dialed up the pressure in the second half, able to control some of the play, with three of their seven shots being on goal. Knights graduate student Meagan McClelland was able to stop each one, including a nice save with two ticks left on the game clock to preserve Rutgers’s 7th shutout of the season and her 41st career clean sheet. The Knights took six shots on goal in the 2nd half and wound up outshooting the Boilermakers 26-10 and 11-4 on goal.

Around the Big Ten

Halfway through the 10-game conference slate, the Knights currently sit tied in 4th place, at 3-1-1, tied with Ohio State and Nebraska. They trail 5-0 Wisconsin and 4-0-1 Northwestern and Michigan State.

Quotable

“On the road, it always takes a little more out of us, so it’s all about staying focused and staying hungry. We know we are going to get every team’s best performance and best effort, so doing as much as we can to overpower that is important. We play together and we bend but we never break, and that’s what our differentiates our team from everyone else. You can’t control how the game goes, but you can control your effort and ability to work together.”

Riley Tiernan (courtesy Rutgers Athletics)

Rutgers Athletics

Notable (courtesy Rutgers Athletics)

• Meagan McClelland recorded shutout No. 41 of her career to maintain her NCAA active career lead. She is now four shutouts away from tying the program record held by current U.S. Women’s National Team keeper Casey Murphy.
• Rutgers has held all 13 opponents to six shots on goal or less.
• Rutgers is now 6-0-1 all-time against Purdue, and moved to 2-0-1 in West Lafayette.

Next Up:

The Scarlet Knights have a week to rest before hosting Indiana on Sun., Oct. 9 at 3 p.m. at Yurcak Field, airing live on ESPN2.