Cyclones snap 4-game losing streak to Raiders
With under 20 minutes remaining in Friday’s home game against the Raiders, Cyclone Sophomore Carly Torneten came sprinting down field and with Sophomore Raider goalkeeper Denae Thayer coming out too far from the net, Torneten was able to sneak in her second goal of the night, leading the Cyclone to a 3-1 victory effectively snapping a 4-game losing streak.
“We’ve had a couple of tough games the past few weeks battling Glenwood, Underwood, and Lewis Central all in the same week,” Torneten said. “I think this was a good confidence booster to kind of get our groove back. We’re missing a few players, but I think this was a good reset game just to kind of get our head back in the game.”
The Raiders struck first when Senior Kenna Meyer gave them their first goal of the night via a penalty kick, putting them up 1-0.
Towards the end of the first half, Senior Cyclone Hailey Good tied the game by sneaking in a goal just between the post and Thayer attempting to dive for the ball tying the game at 1.
“I had a similar goal to that back in a different game that we had earlier on in the season,” Good said. “I just got a really good look on it. Nobody thought that it was going to go in, I honestly didn’t either. I hit it with my toe, and it went in. She [Thayer] was right on the post, so I tried to go for the back one and it worked. It was really satisfying.”
With another 40 minutes of soccer left to play, Cyclone head coach Jared Boysen gathered his team together for a meeting with a strong message.
“We definitely needed to be aggressive and creative on offense,” Torneten said. “We ran a lot of give and go’s the first half, so we wanted to keep that up. We definitely did a lot of through balls, we had some fast forwards, so we wanted to keep that going.”
It didn’t take long for the Cyclones to find the net in the second half of the game as with only a few minutes played, Torneten snuck in a goal past Thayer giving her team their first lead of the night and her fifth of the season.
The offense went quiet for a both teams for a little while, until Torneten scored again due to Thayer coming out and away from the goal to far which allowed Torneten to easily kick the ball in expanding the Cyclone lead to 3-1.
“She [Torneten] learned a lot from last year and she’s had to step up her role on offense more this year,” said Cyclone Head Coach Jared Boysen. “She is really shifty and got behind the defense on that one where Adrian [Irlbeck] made a great throw in. I think gaining some confidence there that she can in the middle.”
The Cyclones earned their seventh win of the season evening their record at 7-7 and got back in the win column for the first time since May 22. They return to Merrill Field Tuesday at 5 p.m. to take on the 1-9 AHSTW Vikings. The Vikings are led by Halle Goodman with six goals, Claire Mertz with three assists, and goalkeeper Kenzie Deal with 42 saves.
“The biggest thing is we’ve got to play to our potential,” Good said. “We’ve got to keep our mindsets going. The biggest issue with us is when we get negative, we stay negative. We’ll get it going and have a really good game that day I hope.”