Many more games like this and Dartmouth women's soccer coach Angie Hind may have to see a cardiologist. As if one overtime game isn't enough to test her ticker, Hind's team just had its third consecutive game go into sudden death on Wednesday night. Of course, victory is pretty strong medicine and the Big Green delivered a big dose of it against the Minutewomen of UMass in a 1-0 extra period thriller in Amherst, Dartmouth's third victory in as many games.
UMass' Kristen Walker proved a difficult goalie to foil, piling up a grand total of 17 saves over the course of the game. But Sarah Johnson '07 finally managed to find a crack in the wall during the game's second overtime period. After teammate Monica Martin de Bustamante '08 was fouled in the 107th minute, the junior forward put a free kick past Walker in the bottom left corner of the net, improving the team's record to 5-2-0 on the year.
For Johnson, it was a rare occurrence of a spontaneous premonition coming true. "When I got the free kick, I thought in my head 'it's going to be over now.' I don't usually think that and then make it happen, but this time it did," she said.
Johnson's goal was the culmination of a dominating performance on both sides of the ball for the Big Green, outshooting UMass 30-6 for the game, including a first half where the Minutewomen were held to a mere two shots while Dartmouth unleashed 14.
Through it all, netminder Walker kept her goal clean of all scoring attempts and the game remained scoreless through regulation and through one period of overtime. In that first overtime, it looked as if UMass could steal the game from the Big Green when Dartmouth only got two shots off in comparison to UMass' one.
But soon the Dartmouth squad found its second wind, taking six shots to UMass' zero in the second overtime when Johnson scored the game's golden goal.
Playing three consecutive games into sudden death has certainly been exciting for the fans in attendance, but Johnson said it has taken its toll on the team.
"Physically I think everyone's exhausted and battling for that long. Everyone's hoping it just takes 90 minutes next time," Johnson said.
The team travels next to Providence to take on the Brown Bears at 7 p.m. on Saturday and then returns home to face the Princeton Tigers on Sunday, October 2 at noon.
