Sept. 30, 2015 - A close battle between two River Forest women's soccer rivals this afternoon turned toward the visiting Dominican University Stars in the second half, and a 79th minute goal spelled the difference in their 2-1 victory over the Concordia-Chicago Cougars.

Ally Krajnak (Griffith, IN/H.S.) made her first start of the season in goal for the Cougars, and she was a factor in the early going as she robbed DU's top scorer Kelli Iovino on a diving fingertip save. Krajnak later made a second save on another Iovino attempt before Concordia-Chicago broke the ice. Coming off a short corner kick, Elizabeth Sanders (St. Louis, MO/Parkway South) touched the ball to Sarah LaCost (Mount Prospect, IL/Prospect) who sent a cross from the left side in fron of the goal. Alisha Johnson (Coal City, IL/H.S.) was perched by the far post, and she finished from point-blank range for a 1-0 lead in the 20th minute.

In the 31st minute, the Cougars saw two chances to make it a 2-0 lead go by the boards. Natalie Weinhold's (St. Peters, MO/Lutheran St. Charles) shot inside the box just missed to the left. Seconds later, a Stars' turnover gave Allison Kruk (Elgin, IL/St. Edward) an opportunity from the left wing. Kruk's shot from 10 yards out beat the DU keeper but caromed off the right post.

Those misses came back to haunt CUC, as the Stars came back to equalize one minute later. A chip inside the box hit off of DU's Taylor Adler but bonced back directly to Alexis Mondragon. From seven yards out, Mondragon's shot beat Krajnak inside the left post.

While Dominican held a 7-4 edge in shots in the first half, the difference was more pronounced in the final 45 minutes. Dominican outshot CUC 7-0 and scored the winning goal with 11 minutes remaining when Iovino received the ball 12 yards out. Her well-placed roller ticked off the right post and into the net for the deciding goal.

"We played an excellent first half, but the chances we missed to go up by two were very costly," said CUC head coach Chris Brown. "In the second half, I think we got in a defensive mode and were unable to get any kind of transition game going, and Dominican made us pay."

The Cougars (2-7-0, 1-2-0 NACC) will host EDgewood College on Saturday morning at 11 a.m. as part of Homecoming Weekend at Concordia.