A typical soccer game lasts 90 minutes from start to finish, but after the Cyclones gave up a goal in the 13th minute to Iowa on Friday night, it looked and felt as though the game was over.

“At the beginning of the game, we came out the stronger side and initiated the action,” said ISU junior defender Emily Hejlik. “Then we just got unlucky on a ball over the top and were kind of deflated instead of taking the other route and fighting harder.

“I think for a lot of people, it felt like an uphill battle after the first goal, and that’s not how you want to take it.”

From that moment on, nothing went right for the Cyclones. 

Iowa scored one more goal before half and added an additional two in the second half to win the game 4-0. Each goal by Iowa was on a counter attack and each time, a lot of space was given.

“After the first goal we just came undone defensively, and we shouldn’t have,” said coach Wendy Dillinger. “We gave them way too much room after that and the midfield gap was huge, which was impossible to defend.”

Iowa bombarded ISU goalkeeper Maddie Jobe throughout the entire game. The Hawkeyes ended with 24 shots, 15 of which were on goal, while Iowa State was only able to get three shots on goal out of its 12 total shots.

Another contributing factor in why Iowa was able to get so many shots off was its speed in open space. A number of times the Hawkeye forwards were able to run behind the Cyclone defenders and produced many of their shots in that way.

“All of their goals, they had time to serve the ball, and yeah they’re fast players, and if you let a fast player get 5 feet in front of you, you’re not going to catch them,” Hejlik said.

The Cyclones offense suffered as well.

After the game, Dillinger listed off countless things that could be improved upon, like the service of the passes they made in the game. She said they were all good ideas, but if the passes all come up short, there’s no point in making them.

Scoring opportunities were very hard for the Cyclones to come by. In the first half, the Cyclones only had one shot on goal.

“We weren’t doing what we needed to do,” said freshman midfielder Emily Goldstein. “We were trying, but it was always just a second off and we just weren’t shooting as well as we needed to.”

For the Cyclones, play will have to be fixed up soon because Big 12 Conference games begin next Sunday.

“[This game] was a good learning tool for us because none of us want to feel like this again,” Goldstein said. “I know we’re good enough to come back stronger, because we’re such a good team, we’re so competitive and we all just want it so much.”