Mustangs keep Indians winless

Updated: August 25, 2011 11:04PM

PORTAGE — A pair of first-half goals was all the scoring Munster needed, as the Mustangs rebounded from a tough conference loss on Tuesday with a 2-0 victory on the road against Portage (0-6).

“That was a tough loss, to lose it in the last two minutes of a conference game,” Munster (1-1, 0-1 NCC) coach Valerie Pflum said, referring to the loss against Kankakee Valley earlier in the week. “So it was nice to come out and play well. We transitioned well between offense and defense all night.”

“Our team was more focused … finally,” she added with a laugh.

After hitting the post twice in a span of 15 seconds during the opening 10 minutes of the game, the Mustangs first got on the board in the 13th minute. Senior Francesca Bowers dribbled up the left side before finding sophomore Allyson Goodrich with some open space about 10 yards from the net. Goodrich then snuck a low shot through the legs of Portage goalkeeper Stephanie Upton to give the Mustangs a lead they never relinquished.

“We had some trouble working the ball around in our last game; we kept shooting from the outside,” said Pflum. “So we really focused on taking the ball down the side and creating opportunities from there. We may not have found the net as many times as we would’ve liked with all the shots we had, but we got enough to win.”

Portage countered with some offensive pressure, generated mainly from two corner kicks. But in the 38th minute, Munster sophomore Sammi Koufos erased some early-season frustrations when her shot from 25 yards out ricocheted off a Portage defender and into the net.

“(Goodrich) has been telling me all season long to take more shots, but I’ve been getting discouraged because I haven’t always been hitting them hard,” said Koufos. “Once I finally hit one solid and went into the net, it was very relieving.”

It was Koufos’ first goal of the season.

Munster continued to create more pressure in the second half, hitting the post on three separate occasions. Portage’s biggest offensive threat came on a free kick late in the half. A long lob into the goalkeeper’s box was mishandled by Munster goalkeeper Joanna Pugh, but the Mustangs rallied to clear the ball before any more damage was done.

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