Monday, August 25, 2008
Mark Francis may want to consider letting the team’s associate head coach, Kelly Miller, take over halftime speech duties.
Francis was forced to take in the action from a camera tower just behind the field because of a red-card suspension from the last season’s final game, leaving his longtime assistant to take the reins in Kansas’ opening game of 2008.
But the Jayhawks didn’t miss a beat, bouncing back from a sluggish first half to defeat nationally ranked Purdue 3-0 at the Jayhawk Soccer Complex Friday afternoon behind three second-half goals.
KU junor midfielder Monica Dolinsky, left, collides with a pair of Purdue players in pursuit of a free ball during Friday night's exibition game at the KU Soccer Complex.
Kansas was fortunate to limp into halftime without conceding a goal after absorbing pressure for the better part of the first half while battling 93-degree heat. But it was the Jayhawks who came out in the second half determined to break open the game after Miller challenged them to retake the momentum and push for a goal.
“I talked to Kelly, and he talked to them at halftime about wanting it more because I felt we took our foot off the gas a little bit,” Francis said. “In the second half our mentality was completely different, and I thought we were consistent with that mentality and not backing off.”
Back off they didn’t, putting three past the Boilermakers in a 27-minute stretch. Freshman Emily Cressy scored her third goal in two games to go along with an assist, and senior Missy Geha and junior Kim Boyer each found the back of the net as the Jayhawks outshot their opponents 9 to 3 in the second half. The victory marked Kansas’ second consecutive 3-0 result following an exhibition game against Drake last weekend.
Geha broke the deadlock in the 54th minute when she bundled the ball in from a corner kick. Freshman Kortney Clifton flicked Shannon McCabe’s service toward the back post where Geha muscled her way in to stake the home side to a 1-0 advantage.
Cressy followed that up 12 minutes later, latching onto junior goalie Julie Hanley’s booming punt and slotting the ball just inside the far post on the half volley. It was the kind of poacher’s goal Cressy has shown a knack for in two games during which she has found herself in the right place at the right time to score three times.
Fluky as it may have seemed, Cressy said the play was something the two had discussed before the contest.
“Before the game, Julie and I had a talk,” Cressy said. “She would kick it over, and I would just shoot it. So, I was really thinking about it the whole entire game, waiting for it at the right time, and it just came.”
Cressy gave Kansas another boost later on when she assisted on Boyer’s goal in the 82nd minute. With her back to the goal, Cressy flicked yet another Hanley feed into the path of the onrushing Boyer, who drove the ball low into the bottom left corner.
Kansas returns to action next Sunday when Auburn travels to Lawrence for an afternoon matchup.
— - Edited by Adam Mowder
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