After staying .500 through five games, the Wildcats lost in a battle against Big 10 opponent, Purdue Boilermakers, 2-1 on Sunday, Sept. 4. The loss follows Kansas State’s victory on Thursday, Sept. 1, against the Weber State Wildcats.
Although the K-State Wildcats lost the Purdue game, the play-to-play advantage seemed to side with the Wildcats. Having been down in shot attempts in both losses before Sunday, the Wildcats kept the shot advantage the entire match, ending with 19-7.
The shot advantage may have started early, but it was the Boilermakers who capitalized early. In the fifth minute of the game, Zoie Allen scored on a tap-in shot from her teammate Emily Matthews to take the match to 1-0.
Finishing the first half with five shots compared to K-State’s 11, Purdue took another goal in the first half, taking a 2-0 lead at half. In the 25th minute, Sydney Duarte sent a long pass to Gracie Dunaway who sent a shot from 20 yards out into the Wildcat net.
With a six shot advantage, K-State continued to attack in the second half. Finishing the half with eight shots, the Wildcats brought the game into one shot late in the second half. Senior forward Kyler Goins sent a goal into the lower right corner in the 87th minute.
A late corner kick in the 88th minute provided the Wildcats a chance to tie the game, but were unable to complete the last minute comeback.
However, the Wildcat showdown against Weber State on Sept. 1 held a different outcome, resulting in a 1-0 K-State victory.
The first half had little to no action for most of the half until the very end. In the 43rd minute, junior forward Maddie Weichel attempted a free kick from 23 yards out. Off of a save from the Weber State goalie, Maddie Weichel’s sister, senior forward Marisa Weichel, rebounded the save and put it into the net, scoring the only goal of the game and her first goal of the season.
“I knew Maddie was going to try to shoot the ball and I was honestly just kind of watching the keeper and seeing what she was doing and right when Maddie shot it I knew there was a chance she might bobble it,” Maddie Weichel said to K-State Athletics. “I knew I had to go once Maddie shot the ball. It is cool, we’ve never had a sister-sister goal yet.”
From then on, K-State took control of the rest of the game. Without scoring the rest of the game, K-State held a shot advantage of 10-2 in the second half.
“It just shows how much depth we have and how much talent we really have on this team, which is awesome and it’ll help us come Sunday to to be able to have more fresh legs,” Marisa Weichel said to K-State Athletics.
The Wildcats leave the Boilermakers game with a 2-3-1 record on the season as they play another home game on Friday, Sept. 9, at 7 p.m. against Yale.
