O'Dea Nets Another Overtime Winner as Dartmouth Tops UNH, 2-1

Thursday, September 25

Durham, N.H.

4:00 PM

Dartmouth College

New Hampshire

O'Dea Nets Another Overtime Winner as Dartmouth Tops UNH, 2-1

9/25/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

DURHAM, N.H. - Dartmouth rookie Aly O'Dea continued her hot streak with her second-straight overtime game-winner as the Big Green (4-2) took a 2-1 win over New Hampshire (1-7) in double-overtime tonight. The Big Green is 16-0-1 in its last 17 outings against the Wildcats.

Katie Davis was all over the field for the Big Green and kept up the pace in extra time. She made a great run down the left side, leaving the UNH defense in her path, before crossing the ball into the box. O'Dea collected it after a scramble to give the Big Green its third-straight overtime win.

Dartmouth dominated the game, particularly in the second half and overtime, taking a season-high 28 shot attempts to New Hampshire's 10. The Big Green came out of the gates hard, attacking in New Hampshire's defensive half early and often.

Dartmouth's first attempt of the game came in the fifth minute after Kelsey Quick (Bernardsville, N.J.) moved the ball up the right side and crossed it in to Myra Sack (Wynnewood, Pa.). Sack headed a shot on goal but UNH keeper Nikki Golding was there to make the stop.

Katie Davis (San Marino, Calif.) had Golding on her heels in the ninth minute when she shot from long range and the UNH keeper just punched it out. She finally cracked through seconds later, scoring her first collegiate goal with an artful header from the top off the box off a corner kick from Quick.

UNH tied it up soon after in the 14th minute when Stephanie Gilkenson intercepted the Dartmouth midfielders and passed the ball up to Shaunna Kaplan. Kaplan was all alone on the left side and beat a diving Laurel Peak (Redding, Conn.) with a low shot to the far post. Peak prevented a UNH rally second later with a big save from point blank range against Sara Hourihan.

Peyton Tata (Virginia Beach, Va.) nearly put Dartmouth back on top when she fired and had Golding beat but hit the far post. Becky Poskin (Leawood, Kan.) had a great break in the 20th minute when she went for a one-one-one header but just skimmed the bottom of the cross bar.

Peak was on her toes and ready for UNH's next sequence of attacks, making two big saves to keep the Wildcats from going ahead.

Dartmouth dominated for much of the half, holding an 11-5 shot advantage but took a 1-1 tie into the half.

The Green got off three threatening shots in the first five minutes, with two from O'Dea and one from Maggie Goldstein (Hillsborough, Calif,), but could not find the back of the net.

Dartmouth continued to pressure UNH as the half wore on and the Wildcats' only real chances came off of cleared balls. The Big Green gave itself plenty of chances to score but struggled to finish. Poskin nearly put the Big Green ahead after a back and forth rumble in the box, but her shot went just wide. Dartmouth got two long-range throw-ins from Thea Sutton (San Rafael, Calif.) that went into the box in the 83rd minute, but her teammates could not capitalize.

Davis nearly added to her tally in the 85th minute when she found herself open with a clear path to the goal but her attempt went just wide.

Senior back Whitney Odden (Bozeman, Mont.) kicked into high gear in the second half, making some great runs out of the defensive end.

UNH managed to keep Dartmouth at bay despite the Big Green's 11-4 shot advantage in the second half and the teams went to overtime.

O'Dea had the golden goal in her sights with a straightaway shot in the 93rd minute but sent it just high. Dartmouth earned two-straight corner kicks soon after and created chaos in the box but somehow was unable to score. Jennifer Williams (Cincinnati, Ohio) nearly won it in the 97th minute but Golding made a point-blank save to preserve the tie.

The teams went to double-overtime and Dartmouth would not back down. The Big Green kept the ball in UNH's half the entire time and it paid off when O'Dea scored her second-straight overtime winner after a cross from Davis in the 105th minute for the 2-1 victory. O'Dea had the extra-time winner against Oregon State last Sunday.

Golding finished an impressive outing with 12 saves to keep UNH in the game while Peak had five for Dartmouth.

The Big Green opens the Ivy League season on Sunday when it hosts Brown at 2:30 p.m. at Burnham Field.