Dramatic comeback lifts Rio women past Bearcats

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - With their post-season aspirations hanging in the balance, the University of Rio Grande women's soccer team mounted the kind of rally that you don't see everyday.
     The RedStorm shook off their offensive struggles by scoring three times in the final six minutes and posting a 3-1 Senior Day win over Brescia University, Saturday afternoon, at Evan E. Davis Field.
     Rio Grande, which snapped a four-game non-winning skid, finished its regular season schedule at 4-10-3 overall and 4-4-2 in conference play.
     The victory also secured a berth in next week's RSC Tournament for head coach Tony Daniels' squad.
     The RedStorm will be the No. 5 seed and will travel to fourth-seeded Oakland City University next Saturday for the quarterfinal round.
     "The girls gave a great effort, played all the way to the end and it finally paid off," Daniels said of his team's improbable comeback. "I'm really happy for them. We've had a bunch of opportunities over the last few games, we just haven't been able to score. Fortunately, we were able to get it done today."
     The three goals scored set a single-game high for the RedStorm, who had just three goals in their five previous games combined.
     For the first 84 minutes of Saturday's game, Rio appeared headed to a fate it had endured quite a bit of late - dominating the opposition in shots, but failing to come away on the positive side of the win/loss ledger.
     Rio Grande finished with a 28-4 advantage in shots overall, including a 12-3 edge in the opening half, but found itself down 1-0 after Maci Uffleman took Payton Willis' crossing pass from just outside the 18-yard box on the left wing and pushed a shot past junior goal keeper Morgan Nutter (Ashville, OH) with 25:20 remaining before the intermission.
     That's how things changed until the RedStorm's wild finish.
     Rio Grande, which played the final 35 minutes with a one-player advantage after Uffleman was issued a straight red card violation, finally netted the equalizer on a penalty kick by freshman Jitske De Muijnk (Nijmegen, The Netherlands) with 5:51 left to play.
     Freshman Emma Hinkle (Marengo, OH) then put the RedStorm in front a little more than 2-1/2 minutes later when she worked her way behind the Bearcats' defensive back line and beat goal keeper Ashby Greenwell in a 1-v-1 situation by burying a shot in the upper left corner of the net.
     The final goal came with 1:18 remaining when sophomore Charlotte Pilgrim (Middlesbrough, England) scored the first marker of her collegiate career off of a pass from the right side of the top of 18 from senior Lyndlee Willis (Wheelersburg, OH).
     Nutter, who was playing for the first time in 14 games due to injury, had a pair of saves in the winning effort for Rio Grande.
     Greenwell had eight stops in a losing cause for Brescia (7-8-1, 4-5-1, RSC).
     Rio Grande's quarterfinal game at Oakland City next Saturday is scheduled for a 2 p.m. kickoff. The winner advances to face top-seeded Point Park in the semifinal round.