By Gavin Lindahl
Staff Writer
A slow start doomed the Bonnies last weekend, said senior forward Abby Maiello.
The women’s soccer team closed out its non-conference play last week with a 2-1 loss against the Penguins of Youngstown State University.
This was the squad’s third game in a row on the road and marks three losses in the last five games played. Despite the losses, Coach Steve Brdarski said he commends the team on staying in each of their lost matches and refusing to be blown out, including the game against Youngstown.
“We had to chase after the game [after the first goal], and we came back out with good energy in the second half. They scored another one, and then we decided at that point we had to work harder,” Brdarski said. “We got a goal out of it, and there were a few other good chances, but at the end of the day, we didn’t play as well as a team as we needed to.”
The scoring began with a Youngstown goal to close out the first half. When play resumed, Youngstown tallied again five minutes into the half. The Bonnies did eventually score at the 60-minute mark off a goal by senior forward Lauren Hill. Hill was assisted by freshmen forward Jessica Scruggs, who continues to make a strong showing on offense.
Brdarski expanded on the team’s shortcomings, claiming the team was presenting itself with opportunities to tie the game or pull ahead, but just didn’t meet them.
“[We had] a lot of time off before this game, and we just weren’t in sync both offensively and defensively,” Brdarski said. “There were some opportunities we should have met – there should have been goals – and we didn’t.”
Maiello noted that the Bonnies also failed to control play, allowing their opponents to dictate how the game would be played.
In both of these games we came out very slow allowing the other teams to control the pace of the game,” Maiello said. “Additionally, in both games, we were not able to get back into it. We need to control the game throughout the entire game, not just at times.”
The Bonnies will not play again until October, meaning the team will roll into Atlantic 10 play after having two weeks off. This time off will be valuable to Brdarski. He explained, without naming any players in particular, the break gives his team time to heal up from small, nagging injuries.
“First and foremost, we’re going to get some players back. I think those with injuries are just about done and over with,” Brdarski said. “Any time you lose a game, the first thing you want to do is get back on the training field. We’ve had some good practices, and we’ve gotten some fitness in. Usually that’s tough to do during the schedule because you don’t have the time to recover.”
Conference play for the Bonnies will begin at home against George Mason University. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m., under the lights, at the Marra Athletics Field Complex on Thursday, Oct. 1. Brdarski said he is happy that the team will be starting their conference schedule at home, hopefully in front of a crowd.
“We’re going to hope there’s a big crowd. Not only is it a home game, but it’s a night game. That gets our girls really excited about what’s happening,” Brdarski said. “We’ve been getting some concepts and ideas down for George Mason; we’ve been working on defending better as a group and individual defending in that group.”
