MIDLAND, Mich. – The Panthers opened their end of the year road stretch on a great note with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over the Timberwolves of Northwood University. Davenport played the Timberwolves evenly in the first half and then found themselves down one goal with under 30 minutes to play in the game. The Panthers got goals from
Madeleine Zayan and
Alayna Hilgendorf to seal the comeback. The win puts Davenport in sole possession of fifth place in the conference and keeps the chance alive of hosting a first-round game in the GLIAC Tournament.
THE BASICS
Final Score: Davenport-2 | Northwood-1
Location: Midland, Mich.
Records: Davenport 6-7 (4-3) | Northwood 2-11-1 (1-5-1)
SHOTS PER HALF (Shots on goal)
First Half: DU-7 | NU-8
Second Half: DU-7 | NU-10
First OT Period: DU-2 | NU-2
Total: DU-16 (8) | NU-20 (10)
HOW IT HAPPENED
The ball bounced all over the field during the first half of play and both teams had a similar number of shots. However, the Timberwolves found the target on six of their shots and Davenport only recorded three shots on goal. Regardless of the total number of shots, the defenses for each team prevailed and the score remained 0-0 after 45-minutes of play.
The Timberwolves broke the scoring draught for both teams with a goal in the 62
nd minute. Northwood crossed a ball in from the right and Jilian Hon tapped the ball in at the back post. After the goal Davenport had four substitutions, bringing in
Marissa Woods,
Roheema Bennett,
Sabrina Stone, and
Allison Luurtsema. The momentum started shifting towards the Panthers as those four brought lots of energy to the team. The Panthers got on the board 74:07 into the game when Zayan netted her second goal of the season, assisted by Bennett. Davenport tried to score another goal before the time ran out, but after 90-minute of play the two teams were tied 1-1.
In the overtime period, Davenport had all of the offensive opportunities. A shot by Hilgendorf was blocked in the 93
rd minute and then the game winner came in the 99
th minute of play. Bennett sent a beautiful through ball to Hilgendorf, who touched the ball past the keeper and struck it into the open net. The score gave Davenport the instant win and shot them into sole fourth place in the GLIAC standings.
COACHES CORNER
"Really proud of the entire squad of players and their perseverance today. Players off the bench made a huge impact and that is extremely important during these short and heavy scheduled seasons. I hope that we can continue to do that in our remaining two games and during the post-season tournament. When we can have players inject energy and quality when we need to, it helps everybody out. It certainly was not our best performance today, but credit to the squad for pulling out a very important win against a team that were fighting for their lives and made it extremely difficult for us throughout the match. We will continue to develop our style of play whilst trying to grind out the results!" – Head Coach
Chris Allen
UP NEXT
The Panthers only have two more games remaining in their 2018 regular season schedule. Davenport heads to Ferris State this Sunday and then travels to Grand Valley State next Friday.
Story by:
Devin Steiner
Picture credit: Tyler Triemstra