AMES — During the annual Cy-Hawk rivalry game Sunday, the Cyclones were faced with countless mistakes, ultimately leading to a 3-0 loss to the No. 17 Hawkeyes.
In the first period of the game, Iowa was keeping Iowa State on its toes. With a consistent battle back and forth between the two teams, the Hawkeyes’ defense led the game from the very beginning as the Cyclones were unable to find gaps against Iowa’s defense, creating a lack of passing abilities and low possibilities of goals.
The Hawkeyes scored their first goal of the game in the 22nd minute with a clean shot by forward Meike Ingles and an assist by midfielder Sofia Bush.
However, Iowa State returned to battle with Iowa without wasting any time. With the Hawkeyes now playing with a strong confidence, they maintained firmly in control. The Cyclones were noticeably chasing the ball throughout the period and expressing their lack of communication.
“It was a lot of excuse-making and making it someone else’s job, so that’s something the women changed themselves during the second half,” Iowa State head coach Matt Fannon said. “They started to take accountability and wanted to win the ball by the front foot, which was definitely a big part of our game plan in the first half.”
The lack of communication ultimately led to the team’s downfall, with Iowa receiving a perfect pass from one another right to Hawkeyes forward Maya Hansen, who was left in the open. Hansen was able to dodge the Cyclones’ defender Adelaide Wolf and kick the ball straight to the goal.
In hopes of blocking the goal, Iowa State defender Chloe Broughton stuck her leg out, but instead of blocking the shot as intended, the ball bounced off her shin and into the goal.
“It’s a disappointment to lose, obviously, but those things are going to happen,” Broughton said. “I just have to turn over a new leaf, pretend it didn’t happen and carry on because there’s no point in dwelling over it. It’s just going to make me play worse.”
Iowa State goalkeeper Avery Gillahan was unable to stop the spontaneous goal as it was just out of reach and was a little too late for the save.
“Everybody makes a mistake like that every once in a while so it wasn’t anything be too hard about, you just have to move onto the next one,” Gillahan said.
Due to Iowa State’s mistake, the goal was originally counted as a goal for Iowa. However, after careful speculation, the goal was then counted towards Hansen due to Broughton being a victim of a deflection and accidentally putting the ball into their own net.
“Those moments happen, there’s not a lot you can do, it’s purely unlucky,” Fannon said. “When that moment happens, you just have to win the game and I think that we didn’t in that moment. But the women wanted to take a step forward, which was a really great moment that stood out to me because of just how well we fought in the second half.”
The Cyclones ended the first half 2-0 and had a total of zero attempted shots.
Although having a rough first period, Iowa State came back and looked better than ever in the first couple of minutes, having one attempted goal under its belt.
Although appearing stronger in the second half, the Cyclones were unable to match the Hawkeyes’ offensive skills as Iowa scored a last-minute goal by forward Berit Parten to finish off Iowa State and end the game 3-0.
