MISSOULA — The Montana women's soccer team won both of its matches in the Rumble in the Rockies at South Campus Stadium, including Sunday's 3-0 victory over former Pac-12 member Oregon State. Montana, who edged Colorado College on Friday, 1-0, used goals by Maddie Ditta, Bella O'Brien and Riley O'Brien to beat Oregon State in dominating fashion. Keeper Ashlyn Dvorak, a Billings native, made one save.
The Beavers, who are coming off a 4-8-7 season and are under the direction of an interim coach in Caroline Kelly, have joined the West Coast Conference. They are picked to finish eighth in the league. With 15 minutes still remaining on the countdown clock, fans of the Montana soccer program were looking up at a rapidly filling grandstand at South Campus Stadium and wondering, where am I supposed to sit? By the time they had all shoehorned in, all 1,190 of them, the second-highest attendance in program history, the Grizzlies delighted their followers.
“It’s building,” said seventh-year coach Chris Citowicki, whose first team, in 2018, played in front of an average of just more than 400 fans. "People are not being triggered by giveaways. People are showing up because it’s a beautiful product.
You want to watch it.” It took less than three minutes for Montana to open the scoring. The Grizzlies led 2-0 at the half and won going away, outshooting the Beavers 18-6 and holding a majority of the possession to defeat Oregon State for the first time since 1997.
“It’s the best thing to start warm-ups and people are already filling the stands,” said senior Ava Samuelson. “It really shows that Missoula is such a big soccer community and gives us so much support. The energy they bring goes into us.
We play so well because of our fans.” Citowicki added, “Ava is right. The more people show up, the more you want to give.
It makes their hearts beat faster, the blood flow more. They just want to win so much more when so many people show up. It’s a beautiful thing.
” Montana scored its first goal before people had had a chance to get comfortable after standing for the national anthem. Jen Estes’s close-range shot from the left side of the box was saved by Oregon State goalkeeper Mya Sanchez. The rebound was tracked down by Ditta, who left-footed the ball into traffic in front and it pinballed into the right side of the goal.
It was Estes’s first point as a Grizzly, Ditta’s fifth career goal and a signal that Montana could now defend the next 87 minutes and slog its way to a 1-0 victory. The Grizzlies had the goal they needed. Now they could sit back and squeeze the Beavers into submission.
Wrong. That may have been the case for Citowicki’s early teams, who didn’t have the scoring prowess of his more recent squads. Now the mindset is, we’re only getting started.
“The whole message the entire time was, we have to attack, we have to attack, we have to attack the whole game. Don’t stop,” Citowicki said. His Grizzlies didn’t, going up 2-0 in the 35th minute when Bella O’Brien scored her fourth career goal on her 11th career shot.
Kayla Rendon Bushmaker touched the ball to O’Brien at the top of the box and the midfielder scored inside the right post not by force but by lofting a ball to a spot no goalkeeper outside the World Cup was going to touch. “Coming off the bench, if my number is called, I’m ready. We all play a role,” said O’Brien.
“Huge credit to Kayla for laying the ball off to me. Great assist by her.” It was a memorable moment for a senior with two starts in her career.
“Kudos to Bella. She is playing the best soccer of her career,” said Citowicki. “Leader on the field during practices, leader in the locker room and working so hard to get minutes.
Now when she’s getting them, she’s maximizing them. It’s exactly what you want everybody to do in this program.” Montana led 2-0 at the break.
As the second half wore on, energy everywhere started to wane as the temperature cracked 90 degrees, that is until the O’Briens – Bella and Riley – brought the facility back to life in the 78th minute. Bella had her eyes on her second goal of the match, lofting a shot that hit off the crossbar and left the OSU goalkeeper on the ground. That left an opening for Riley to step up and head the ball into the net, her fourth career goal.
That made it four goals on the weekend by four different players, two starters and two players who had come in off the bench..
