Oct. 6, 2009
Box Score
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Despite wet and windy conditions at Lakeside Field Tuesday afternoon, No. 18 Northwestern played a sound game both offensively and defensively in defeating California 3-0. The Wildcats improved to 11-4 entering the stretch run of the season with all five remaining games coming against Big Ten opponents.
With her squad playing its third game in five days, head coach Tracey Fuchs had a shortened timetable in which to prepare NU for a team that dealt the 'Cats a 5-1 loss last season. But Northwestern came out ready to play, taking six shots that forced six saves by California within the first 10 minutes of action. The Wildcats dominated the Bears in penalty corner opportunities in the first half, earning nine compared to Cal's zero.
Through 15 games, Northwestern has now scored 60 goals for a Big Ten-best average of four scores per contest. The 2009 'Cats are within reach of the school record of 69 goals in a single season set in 1982.
After having one goal called back because of a high stick, Northwestern managed to break through on the scoreboard in the 24th minute on a goal by Courtney Plaster-Strange. The NU senior got control of a loose ball five yards in front of the cage and pushed the ball off the foot of Cal goalie Maddie Hand and into the net for her 10th goal of the season.
Five minutes later, NU nearly took a 2-0 lead when Plaster-Strange found Jill Putnam with a pass behind the Cal 'keeper, but a Golden Bear defender was able to recover and clear the ball off Putnam's stick. On the next trip down the field, however, Putnam took advantage of a second chance from nearly the identical spot on the field when she one-timed a pass from Elizabeth Dobbs past Hand to make it 2-0.
Following the halftime break, the 'Cats continued to attack and scored again off a penalty corner play. NU's Chelsea Armstrong took the ball off the stop and delivered a hard hit that found the stick of Dobbs and caromed past multiple defenders on its way into the cage.
Armstrong came within inches of scoring her 21st goal of the season and making it 4-0 NU when she drilled a shot off a penalty corner off the right upright of the cage in the 44th minute. It was one of a team-leading eight shots on the day for the NU sophomore.
Armstrong, currently one of the NCAA's leading goal scorers but a former defender for her club team in Australia, contributed to NU's shutout of the Bears by playing on the back line for the entire second half. She teamed with fellow defenders Sarah Marcincin, Zoe Almquist, Stacy Uchida and goalkeeper Katie Lynch to shut down the Cal attack.
The Golden Bears, who were coming off narrow one-goal losses to both Indiana and Iowa, managed just four shots versus the Northwestern defense.
The Wildcats now return their attention to Big Ten play when they travel to Penn State to take on the Nittany Lions Friday at 5 p.m.