By Gavin Lindahl
Staff Writer
For the women’s soccer team, there’s only one match standing between them and conference play.
This past week, the Bonnies played a couple of road games, going 1-1.
Last Friday, the squad was in Lewiston to face off against Niagara University. Coach Steve Brdarski described the match, a 3-1 victory, as their best match of the season so far.
“They did exactly what we told them to do,” Brdarski said. “It was a great game for us. Niagara played exactly the way we thought they were going to, and in my past three years here, that was the best road game I’ve ever seen [the Bonnies] play.”
Nearly 12 minutes into the match, senior forward Abby Maiello opened scoring for the Bonnies off a through ball from sophomore forward Danielle Vis. This was just the beginning of the game’s offense and a night that saw Vis notch an assist on all three Bonnies’ goals.
Maiello also got on the score sheet as she recorded the primary assist on freshman forward Jessica Scrugg’s second goal of the season. Senior forward Lauren Hill recorded the Bonnies’ final tally of the night in the 80th minute off another through ball from Vis.
Niagara scored its lone goal seven minutes later, but it was too little too late as the Bonnies claimed their first road win of the season.
According the Brdarski, Vis’ impressive night on the score sheet is just desserts for a player that always digs deep.
“There’s no stat for hard work; nobody tracks that, and Danny (Vis) is a worker,” Brdarski said. “It’s nice to see her hard work rewarded, and it’s nice to see a stat that actually shows her hard work. It’s not a surprise.”
Scruggs, who has recorded three points in over the stretch of two games, has also impressed Brdarski.
“With Jessica (Scruggs), it is a little bit of a surprise. Not because of her nature; her nature is she’s a competitive person, tons of athleticism, and she’s a great teammate,” Brdarski said. “But how quickly she was going to take to D1 college soccer, we didn’t know. She played great against Cleveland, and she did even more against Niagara. Now she’s starting to say she can produce, and she’s putting herself more in the conversation.”
Maiello agreed, noting that her teammate boosts the team’s morale as well.
“I think that she has stepped up these past couple games and filled a position we have needed,” Maiello said. “She’s a spark on the field and brings a lot of energy with the way she plays.”
After all the good things that came out of Niagara, the Brown and White dropped a 1-0 match against Cornell University the following Sunday. Cornell hasn’t surrendered a single goal this season throughout six matches. Cornell’s Jessica Ritchie scored the only tally at the 59th minute.
Despite the loss, Brdarski is still confident.
“For 45 minutes, we did some decent things. We created chances. Then in the second half, we got caught out of shape when we lost the ball while attacking. They transitioned fast and caught us on the run,” Brdarski said. “I’m not concerned about it. We’ve moved past it, we’ve had some great practices and training session since. I’d rather that game happen against Cornell now rather than someone in the Atlantic 10 three weeks from now.”
This weekend, the Bonnies will take to the road to square off against Youngstown State this Sunday at 1 p.m. This is the first time the squad will have to play in what Brdarski said will mimic conference play conditions.
“Most of our games have been pretty local,” Brdarski said. This match, it’s an overnight trip, we’ve got to stay in a hotel, be in a situation that’s not friendly, and we need to get a result. I want work ethic and energy. I want to go after the opponent whether we’re home or away. That’s what I’ll really be looking at–how we handle one last game, on the road, to get ourselves ready to start our conference schedule.”
