Purdue Soccer Upsets No. 24 Louisville

The other Purdue football team has been playing for a few weeks now, and it is off to a great start. Last season a 4-0-1 Big Ten start had Purdue in the thick of the Big Ten race before some late stumbles. This year the non-conference season is setting the stage for a return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2009.

After upsetting No. 24 Louisville tonight (the program’s first win over a top 25 team in nine years) Purdue is 4-1-1. It has been getting it done with late game heroics, as well. The season started on August 17th with an easy 3-0 win over Eastern Michigan. Skylurr Patrick, Teagan Jones, and Sarah Clark each had goals, with Patrick’s coming just 39 seconds into the game.

A week later Purdue hosted No. 25 West Virginia in the Boilermaker Challenge Cup and earned a 1-1 draw. Sydney Duarte scored for the Boilermakers in the 74th minute, but a West Virginia goal in the 86th minute earned the Mountaineers a draw after a scoreless overtime.

The second game of the Challenge Cup was an exciting 2-1 win over Iowa State. Clark’s second goal of the season tied it in the 84th minute, then Purdue stole the win with a 90th minute goal from Kylie Hase. Here is the game-winner:

With a 2-0-1 start at home Purdue went on the road to a pair of SEC schools last week. Hase’s second goal of the season came in the 76th minute at Georgia on August 30th and Purdue earned a late 1-0 road win. Three days later Purdue traveled to No. 15 and fell behind 2-0 before Hase added an 89th minute goal. Purdue couldn’t find an equalizer, however, and fell to the Gamecocks 2-1.

That leads us to tonight, where Louisville came to Folk Field. After falling behind 1-0 on a 16th minute goal it was Hase who tied it with her fourth goal of the season. It came in the 65th minute, and nine minutes later Ena Sabanagic gave Purdue the 2-1 lead with a goal. The Boilers then held on for the win.

Purdue has one more non-conference game on Sunday at home against Western Michigan before hosting Michigan State and Michigan next week to start conference play. Within the league Penn State is currently ranked 11th and Northwestern is 14th as the only two ranked teams. Wisconsin, Ohio State, Minnesota, Rutgers, Nebraska, and Illinois are receiving votes, however.

After this week we might see Purdue get a few votes.