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Leaving it for late

Love’s last-minute goal breaks deadlock in annual midnight scrimmage

Sean Arbaut/MSU athletics Minot State forward Taryn Love (red) splits two defenders en route to scoring the game-winning goal Monday morning at Herb Parker Stadium.

With a scoreless tie on the horizon at around 1:15 a.m. Monday morning, Minot native Taryn Love picked up a loose ball, weaved in between two defenders and calmly slotted the ball past the goalkeeper.

A late game-winner, with 56 seconds left on the clock, to conclude the seventh annual Midnight Madness scrimmage to kick off the Minot State women’s soccer season at Herb Parker Stadium.

“It’s a good way to start the season,” said junior forward Love. “Now we are into the year, already scoring goals so it can’t be that bad. It was fun.”

Love had the lone goal to give the red team a 1-0 win over the white team in a defensive stalemate for most of the hour-long match, split into two 30-minute halves.

“Everyone is leaving happy. There wasn’t really a winner or loser tonight,” Love said. “There is no pressure on anyone. Everyone is kind of out here to see what the freshman can do coming in and what they can add to the team.”

Sean Arbaut/MSU athletics Sydnee Canales (10) cuts the ball back against defender Kelli Creese (3) and Karli Williams (16) during the Midnight Madness scrimmage.

There are plenty of new faces with 11 freshmen listed on the roster. While some will be given redshirts this season, a few could be thrown into the mix right away.

“I’ll just tell you right now, we lost a lot of people. But, the show goes on,” MSU coach Jason Spain said. “I want the girls to have fun and play well. (This scrimmage is) a little different than last year where every single starter returned. We have nine kids not returning from last year’s starting lineup, so I’m looking more for fun, athleticism and coachability.”

Yet, lofty expectations from Spain remain for the defending regular season Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference champions.

“We want to go deep into the tournament and I want to win the conference,” he said. “It will be interesting… If we can grind out a couple early victories in conference, then get going. We will be OK. Just a lot of freshmen, but we got a very big, fast and athletic group.”

That was on display Monday morning. Perhaps the most noticeable difference was the Beavers’ height.

“Last year, we had eight girls that were five-foot-tall or less,” Spain said. “Now, you look around and we are 5-10 to 6-1, a lot of them.”

Just narrowly missing that threshold at 5-foot-9, but is just as imposing, is the NSIC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year Kelli Creese. The senior headlines a stout defense that will likely play in a lot of low scoring affairs this season, much like how the Midnight Madness turned out.

“No goals scored against myself and to score some goals this season,” Creese said was her aim this season. “We have both the (Franco) twins back there, so that will help. We have some new girls. Don’t really know who is going to be playing what position yet, just because they are still trying things out. But, I think we will be strong.”

Creese nearly started the season with a bang by just missing the frame of the goal on a volley from about 25 yards out in the opening minutes of the scrimmage.

Quality scoring chances were hard to come by throughout the match. Sophomore goalkeeper Erin Rafferty made five saves to record the shutout, while freshman Jordan Higgins stopped one shot for the white team.

Love made the most out of her opportunity in the final minute. She played in eight games last year and didn’t score. As a freshman, Love played in 19 games and scored five goals on 12 shots.

“Coach Spain talked about it before that we win every loose ball and every tackle,” she said. “Our only option is to basically win, so I saw a loose ball and I had to go for it.”

Spain also talked before the game about his desire to see more improvements made in the classroom.

“I want perfection, discipline, good technique and ball on the ground,” he said. “And I want the same commitment to perfection in the classroom. 3.0, 2.9, 3.1 (GPA)… I just don’t think that is good enough. I equate that to fifth place in the conference. I want to be first there and first here. That’s kind of our goal this year.”

The Beavers first game is Aug. 31 on the road against Black Hills State University.

Alex Eisen covers Minot High School, Minot State athletics and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.

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