Photo by: Justin Edmonds
BOULDER- Their feet flew off the bright green grass, their screams flew out of their lungs, their smiles bigger than their faces could handle, all because of a game-winning goal over No. 1 ranked Stanford.
A 1-0 win that will be etched in DU women’s soccer history and help propel a season that has been off to a rocky start.
It all happened on Sunday morning in the University of Colorado tournament with cloudy skies and 421 people in attendance.
Stanford had possession for the majority of the match and outshot Denver 7-1 in a scoreless first half.
The second half featured much more of the same with the Pioneer defense coming up big multiple times and halting Cardinal scoring chances.
“Our goal was not to give up a goal in the first half and give up a little bit of possession and look to counter, which is inevitably how we ended up scoring a goal,” said Head Coach Jeff Hooker.
With just four minutes remaining in the game it looked like DU would go home with a very impressive tie against the No. 1 team in the country. It all changed when Denver got one of its few scoring breaks and junior Carrie Blackenbuhler found senior Jenna Billingsley at the 6-yard box and nailed it into the back of the net.
“Just excitement, anytime you score a goal against the No. 1 team, you are just excited,” said Billingsley after scoring her team-leading fifth goal of the season.
It is the first time in program history the Pioneers have defeated a No. 1 team and recorded their best win against a ranked team since they defeated No. 2 Portland on Aug. 31, 2003.
“I would say this season it is definitely what we needed. We played against some good competition and haven’t played to our expectations and our potential. It seems like one thing this team does year in and year out is rise to occasions and it did today,” said Hooker.
Denver opened the Colorado Classic with a 1-1 tie with Drake in overtime with Billingsley getting the lone goal in front of 1,613 people.
“I think the reason the exclamation point is so big is because we didn’t get a win on Friday and coming out of this weekend without a win would have been a little disappointing for us,” said Hooker.
The beginning of the season has been anything but perfect for the Pioneers. They began with a 2-0 loss to CU, 3-1 win over Air Force, 5-1 win over Northern Colorado, 0-0 tie with UCSB and 3-0 loss to Pepperdine.
Denver begins Sun Belt Conference play this weekend at home against Louisiana-Lafayette on Friday at 4 p.m. and Sunday versus Louisiana-Monroe at 12 p.m.
Last season the Pioneers finished 19-3-1 overall and were undefeated in conference play on their way to winning the SBC tournament and advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
“This is going to be the most difficult Sun Belt run that we have ever had, because we have seven road games and four home games, our toughest opponents are all on the road,” said Hooker.
The win over Stanford has notched national attention and also will hopefully help elevate the Pioneers game as they look to make more history this season and advance far into the playoffs. Last season DU defeated Kentucky in the first round, before losing to Colorado to end a very impressive season.
When asked how good DU is, Hooker responded with, “We don’t know yet. It depends if it is the team that shows up and plays against Pepperdine or the team that shows up and plays against Stanford.”
