A game? GCU Stadium stages rare event

Thursday, September 24

8 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Intrasquad Scrimmage

9/25/2020 8:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer, Paul Coro

PHOTO GALLERY

Cissell's Lopes coaching debut shows off attacking style with 5 goals

By: Paul Coro

For one rare night this fall, the Grand Canyon campus boasted the familiar looks and sounds of a fall sports season.

The GCU Stadium lights were shining. Lopes were playing soccer in uniform. The broadcast cameras were rolling. The voices of a crowd, albeit piped in, and public address announcer Paul Danuser carried between neighboring buildings.

After seven weeks of training, the GCU women's soccer team was given a night that felt like a match Thursday with COVID-19 season postponing the Lopes' season until the spring.

And GCU won.

Purple defeated Black 3-2 in an intrasquad scrimmage that won over the players and coaches involved. Under first-year head coach Chris Cissell, the Lopes showed progress toward an attacking style by scoring five goals after a season in which GCU posted three multi-goal games.

"I was happy to see they are starting to play the style of soccer that we want them to play," Cissell said. "We have an identity now. We have a way to play. I think they are really buying into that so that's exciting. They were thrilled that we scored five goals but they felt like we had an opportunity to score a lot more. We had a lot of shots that were just high or wide. If we can get more of those shots on frame, we'll be a really good team." Camryn Larson

The match was closed to fans but that did not stop people from watching from the stairwells of academic buildings and through the stadium fences as the competitiveness cranked up down the stretch.

The best goal of the night came in the 83rd minute, when junior forward Remmi Deutsch set up sophomore forward Jaycee Iranshad to send a cross to senior forward Camryn Larson, who headed the ball into the net to tie the game at 2-2.

"I promised all my friends and family that GCU was going to win tonight and then I thought I was going to be a liar," Cissell said. "I thought it was going to end up a tie when it was 2-2 in the 87th minute."

Despite the hot weather and one substitute for Purple and none for Black, the intensity remained and Purple responded with 3:06 remaining.

Just after sophomore goalkeeper Kayla King made a charging save to preserve the tie, sophomore forward Lindsey Prokop made a backfield steal and centered the ball to sophomore forward Sydney Torres, who fed sophomore midfielder Nyah Bonchonsky for a point-blank game-winner.

"It was exciting, knowing that we have fans watching live," Torres said. "I honestly celebrated with the team as if it was an actual game out there. I treated it like an actual game, celebrating and jumping with my teammates.

"I'm going to wake up and be like, 'Just letting you know – purple won.' I'll probably just brag until next Saturday (when there is a second scrimmage)."

Torres had reason to savor the moment more than most would.

Just as the Phoenix Sandra Day O'Connor High School graduate was ready to move onto campus this more, she went to the hospital in severe pain and underwent an emergency salpingectomy – a surgery to remove her fallopian tubes. She was cleared for her first full practices last week.

Torres also scored a goal in the second half. As senior defender Hannah Edwards passed upfield to junior forward Marleen Schimmer, Torres sprinted even with the ball and outraced a defender and a charging goalkeeper to receive Schimmer's pass, compose herself and hit the empty-net goal.

"There was a lot of positivity out there," Torres said. "It was so good to hear from the coaches about what we could do."

Anna Whitaker

The game marked the anticipated debut of Marleen Schimmer, a German who transferred to GCU after scoring 17 points for Arizona State last season.

"It was just awesome to be back on the field with my new teammates," Schimmer said. "I absolutely love it here. The girls are amazing. The coaches are nice. It's just like a family. I come from Germany so it's like a second family with the entire GCU staff and the team."

Of the 21 non-goalies who played Thursday night, 12 recorded a goal or an assist as GCU implements a style with two attacking midfielders and sending outside backs forward.

On the first goal, junior defender Anna Whitaker stopped an attack and senior defender Sandra Hill cleared the ball near midfield to start an attack the opposite way. Sophomore midfield Alexis Worley went 360 degrees with her dribble to center the ball to sophomore midfielder Emma Anderson, who sent it ahead for freshman midfielder Brenna Alderson to lose one defender and beat another before scoring from the top of the box.

The first of Schimmer's two assists also came in the first half, when sophomore forward Dani Babb got behind the defense and was led perfectly in stride by a 30-yard Schimmer pass. Babb continued deeper before sticking the goal into the net on the short side.

The teams combined for 38 shots, including 15 on goal. Three goalkeepers rotated with King making a game-high three saves.

"There's just something about being in the stadium under the lights with your uniforms on," Cissell said. "It just seems like a real match. This is the first time we've gone a whole 90 (minutes). I was pleased with the quality. Both teams did exactly what we're trying to do."