Spartans' First-Half Goals Spoil Home Opener for Wildcats

BALDWIN CITY – After splitting its first two matches on the road, Baker women's soccer battled with Missouri Baptist in its home opener, but couldn't overcome a two-goal deficit from the first half as the Wildcats fell, 2-0 to the Spartans on Saturday night at Hartley Field.

With the match being pushed back to a later kickoff due to the heat, it was the Spartans who got off to a hot start in the first half with a goal in the first 12 minutes of play, followed by a goal in the 30th before a scoreless second half gave MBU a win in its first game of 2024.

Trailing by two goals in the second half, the Wildcats strung together their fair share of chances though with all eight of their corner kicks coming in the latter period, including a litany of corner set pieces in the late stages of the match.

"It was a tale of two halves and two different emotions for us," said Baker head coach Sara Matthews. "We were toe-to-toe with them (Missouri Baptist) in shots and Avery (Young) came up with a few big saves in goal for us, but we just dug a hole early and couldn't convert our own chances. It was a slow start and a disappointing first-half effort, but I'm proud of how we turned it around in the second half." 

The two teams mirrored each other in shots in both halves with five apiece in the first half and eight apiece in the second half. Emma Schieber finished as the shot leader for BU with three of her four shots in the game landing on target.

It was an unfortunate bounce for BU that led to MBU's opening goal of the match after a ball played into the box ricocheted off a Wildcats defender and into the foot of Spartans forward Gabbie Wood, who hurled a shot to give the visitors an early 1-0 advantage.

After both teams traded a pair of shots throughout the next 20 minutes, the Spartans added to their lead in the 30th minute with Skyler Hollingshead sending a superb long-range volley from about 30-yards out that sailed over the outstretched hands of BU keeper Avery Young and into the back of the net.

In the second half, the Wildcats had an excellent opportunity come in the 56th minute after Caitlin Youles delivered a perfect through ball to the speedy Schieber whose breakaway put her one-on-one with the keeper, but her shot was denied after a terrific knee-jerk save by the MBU goalie.

Darcy Cato also fell victim to a great play by MBU's Hannah Miller a few minutes later after the BU winger had her spirited run end up being saved by a diving Miller.

Looking to spark a late rally, Baker's hectic final 10 minutes started with the first of four straight corner kicks in the 82nd as its best opportunity came on the fourth corner that saw Caitlyn Sample's leaping header fall wide of the net.

The Wildcats had another set of corner kicks come up empty in the final minutes of the game with a heads-up play by the MBU defense blocking a quick strike from Emeil Bennett off of one of the set pieces.

With back-and-forth results in its first week of the season, Baker will look to get back in the win column in its next outing which features a matchup down the road at Ottawa on Friday, Aug. 30 at 6 p.m.

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