Oct. 27, 2008

Complete Game Notes: Weber State

Quickly
The Bengals split over the weekend that began with a victory over Sacramento State. Hosting the Hornets provided the Bengals with their best game of the season with a 3-1 victory. Idaho State then dominated Portland State at home but the Vikings were able to take advantage of one of their only scoring opportunities to take strip the Bengals any chance of attending the Big Sky tournament. Idaho State will have a week to prepare as they play for pride against the Weber State Wildcats on Saturday, November 1 at the Wildcat Soccer Stadium.

About Idaho State
The Bengals ended the longest non-winning streak in Idaho State history with its 3-1 victory over Sacramento State at Davis Field. Idaho State has only posted two victories this season with two of the three coming from the start of the season. The season opener against Utah State proved to be the Bengals best game of the season until Idaho State hosted Sacramento State at home. The Bengals improved their season game-high of seven points against Utah State to 10 against Sacramento State. The game-high goals also improved from two to three as well as total assists from three to four. Unfortunately after playing their best game of the season the Bengals dropped a 1-0 decision to Portland State ending their chance to attend the Big Sky Tournament.

The Bengals have posted 13 goals four of which have been posted by sophomore Lauren Ryan. Ryan leads the team with points as she has also recorded two assists. Idaho State is a young team filled with twice as many underclassmen as upper (14 to 7). 10 of the 13 goals for the Bengals has come from underclassmen and all three game-winning goals this season have been posted by freshman. The last freshman to post a game winning goal was midfielder Noelle Sanders against Sacramento State in a 3-1 victory. A freshman that has had a huge impact on the team is keeper Bailey Williams who has been at goal for 12 games playing 986:56 allowing 16 goals. She has recorded 54 saves for a .771 save percentage and has posted a 2-7-2 record.

About Weber State
Weber State is second in the conference with 12 points as Portland State surpassed the Wildcats with their 1-0 victory over the Bengals. The Wildcats post a 7-8-2 overall record and are 4-2-0 in conference. Weber State will win the conference title outright and host the championship if they beat Idaho State and if Portland State has a loss or a tie to Sacramento State, or if the Wildcats tie Idaho State, and Portland State loses to Sacramento State, as they hold a head-to-head tie-break over the Vikings. A very negative scenario for Weber State is that they could miss the postseason if they lost to Idaho State, and if Northern Arizona, Montana, and Sacramento State all win.

The Wildcats post a 4-2-1 home record and are 2-1 in home conference games. Midfielder Haley McCoy leads the Wildcats with five goals and four assists for 14 points. Weber State has had an exceptional season with three players earning Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week Awards; Whitney Smith, Kiersten Wood, and Haley McCoy. Keeper Rebecca Ritchie earned back-to-back Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week Award on September 29 and October 6th when she shared the honor with ISU's keeper Maren Eves-Williams. Ritchie has 1.09 goals against average and a .827 saves percentage with 86 saves. She has given the Wildcats seven wins and posted six shutouts.

Series with the Wildcats and Last Meeting
The series is close with Weber State capturing one more victory than Idaho State for the Wildcats to hold a 6-5-1 lead to the Bengals. Under the direction of head coach Allison Gibson the Bengals have posted a 2-0 series. In 2006, ISU defeated the Wildcats 1-0 in and doubled their goals in 2007 for a 2-0 victory. In 2007 the Wildcats were Idaho State's last game of the season and will repeat the timing again this season. In their last match up the Wildcats out shot the Bengals 14 to 11, but Idaho State was more accurate as they posted seven shots on goal to Weber State's six. Kilee Quigley scored the game-winning goal on an assist from Taylor Powell in the first period. Quigley posted four shots, three on goal in the game. The second goal was scored by Natalie Graham, assisted by Michelle Okumura. Idaho State posted the only two corner kicks of the game in the first period. The Wildcats played a physical matchup forcing 12 fouls to ISU seven, but it was not enough to shy the Bengals away from advancing up the field.

Assist Correction in Hofstetter's Favor
Annamarie Hofstetter became the all-time assists leader in ISU history with 19 when she assisted a goal for senior Kilee Quigley at the 8:46 mark in the 6-2 loss to Northern Colorado. However, the second goals scored by Idaho State was previously recorded as an assist by Kilee Quigley. When discussed with the athletes and coaches and reviewed through film it was determined that Hofstetter actually made the assist giving her two total assists for the game for two points. Therefore, not only did Hofstetter overcome the ISU all-time assists record set by Heather Hunt-Jones in 2003 with 18 assists, Hofstetter crushed it in a single game. Her performance also gave her the second most career assists in Big Sky Conference history. She needs just three more assists to beat Katie McCoy of Sacramento State who set the record at 22 from 2004 -2007. Luckily for the junior midfielder she will have an entire season next year to muster a minimum of three assists, but with her outstanding ability to creating scoring opportunities, it will be no feat for her.

Goodbye: Four Bengals to Play in Last Game of Career
Four Bengals will have their final career game against Weber State on Saturday, include Jana Davis-Boehler, Maren Eves-Williams, Katie Miller and Kilee Quigley.

Redshirt junior, #12, Jana Davis-Boehler who hails from Provo, Utah is a co-captain and four-year member of the team, and will celebrate her last career game as she will graduate in December. A forward, who has played 45 career games has netted seven goals and posted five assists for 19 points. Last year she tied for eighth place in school history for total goals in a season with six. She is tied for fifth in game-winning goals for a season with the three she posted in 2007. Her first game-winning goal came in a 2-0 victory against Idaho to secure the second straight Governor's Cup Championship. Most recently she scored the first goal against Sacramento State on a penalty kick to give Idaho State its first conference win of the season.

Redshirt senior Maren Eves-Williams, #0, was granted a fifth year by the NCAA. Playing in the keeper position for Idaho State she posted a .871 saves percentage last season ranking first all-time in ISU history and was 14th in the nation. She has posted 150 saves over her career, and is the third all-time leader in school history. She holds the fourth all-time career shutouts record with eight and has posted nine total wins. Last season she became the second ISU keeper to ever be credited with an assist, assisting on the winning goal in a 2-0 win over Idaho that brought ISU its second straight Governor's Cup Championship. She was awarded her first Big Sky defensive play of the week in October this season when she recorded a shutout in double overtime against Gonzaga.

Senior Katie Miller, #16, who hails from Santa, Rosa, California. A defender on the team for two years, she has played in 30 games. She has posted 19 career starts including every game this season. As a defender she has broken through the backlines to post four career shots with three on goal. This season she posted her first assist as she initialized the first goal of the season with a long pass down the right sideline in the season opening victory against Utah State, which marked the first time Idaho State had beaten the Aggies since 2003.

Senior midfielder and co-captain Kilee Quigley, #5, has played and started in all 72 games of her career as a Bengal, placing her fifth in the all-time games started record at ISU. She has recorded eight goals over her career, scoring at least once every season. She posted two goals during Big Sky Conference play this season. She has also posted 11 career assists giving her 27 career points. She posted a game-winning goal in a 2-0 victory over Weber State in the final match of the 2007 season. She has numerous top-ten career records at Idaho State including, fifth all-time shots record with 114, tied for fifth all-time shots on goal record with 59 and is tied for fifth most career assists with 11.