Gophers forward Sydney Squires is a freshman, but her play on the pitch suggests otherwise.
After scoring two goals in her first two collegiate games, Squires scored two game-winning goals over the weekend to help the Gophers defeat previously-ranked Marquette 1-0 and South Dakota State 2-0.
“She’s a goal-scorer. Every team wants a goal-scorer,” head coach Stefanie Golan said Friday. “For a freshman to show up in a big game like that … that’s tremendous.”
Though Marquette dropped out of the polls, the Gophers still viewed the victory as an important one.
“It’s huge,” Golan said. “For us, Marquette is a team that makes it tough to play the way that we want to. They’re physical, they’re running at you the whole time, they’re chipping at you.”
Golan said her team was prepared for the challenge of playing a more physical team like Marquette, which showed as the Gophers grinded out a win despite being outshot 12-9.
“We talked as a team afterward, and we said sometimes in games like this, you just have to find a way to win,” Golan said. “It wasn’t pretty, but it counts. And we’re glad that we got the W.”
The lone goal of the game started with junior forward Taylor Stainbrook, who drove the ball by the corner of the opposing goal before feeding it to an open Squires in front of the net.
“[Stainbrook] was crazy fast that entire half,” Squires said. “She just kept going, slipped it back, and I had an open goal. She did all the work for it.”
For a while, it looked like the two teams might not have gotten the game in, as the contest faced delays due to lightning strikes near the area. Even after changing the game time by two hours to avoid severe weather, the Gophers still experienced their second weather delay in two weekends of play.
The skies were clear for the Gophers’ second game of the weekend against South Dakota State. The game-winning goal came from Squires again — this time 19 minutes into the first half and assisted by sophomore midfielder Josee Stiever.
The Gophers controlled possession throughout most of the game and mustered 21 shots, but they did not pull away until the final minutes, when sophomore Simone Kolander padded their lead to 2-0.
“It feels awesome, especially to get a sweep at home, because we played a really tough game Friday night against Marquette,” Kolander said. “To just grind it out and get a 2-0 win feels really good.”