The BG women’s soccer team found themselves at their wit’s end after dropping a match to Ohio University and playing Marshall to a draw as they opened conference play this weekend. Despite a strong effort, the Falcons fell to Ohio 2-0 on Friday and walked away with a 1-1 tie on Sunday.
In the match against Ohio, the Falcons continued to have trouble putting a ball in the net. The team had 17 corner kicks to tie the school record set in 1998, but was unable to convert on any of them.
“There was a ton of pressure and we failed to score,” BG head coach Andy Richards said. “It’s not due to lack of effort or lack of ability; we just need to make better decisions around the goal.”
Both teams were held scoreless in the first half before Ohio’s Tiffany Horvath scored off of an assist from Kelly Prandi. The Bobcats sealed the score with just under three minutes left when Natalie Grein fired a shot past BG Keeper Ali Shingler. Shingler had 7 saves in the match.
The referee’s presence was strongly felt by both teams in Friday’s match. Two Ohio players received yellow cards for physical play along with assistant coach Jim Welch, who was carded for language. BG’s Julie Trundle also received a yellow card for rough play and team leader Britt Anderson was ejected in a controversial call over language with less than two minutes left in the game.
“I think [the referee] could have made a better decision. I think he overreacted in [Anderson’s] situation,” Richards said.
The Falcons were forced to play without Anderson in Sunday’s match as a result of the red card she received in Friday’s game.
Sunday’s match against Marshall was also a very physical contest. Marshall’s Kristen Miller and BG’s Gina Rossi both were warned for rough play. A total of 46 fouls were collectively committed by BG and Marshall.
The Falcons had several quality offensive drives that paid off near the end of the first half when Kristy Coppes headed a cross past Marshall keeper Ashleigh Woods at 37:19. Trundle and Rossi assisted on the goal. Woods went down injured after a collision with Rossi and was replaced by Kai Nordness 15 minutes into the second half.
Marshall’s Kassie Hollman evened the score 65:05 in to the match, netting a pass from teammate Mollie Lee. Both teams fought aggressively for the win as the clock ran down, but neither side was able to score in the remainder of regulation.
The squads continued to fight in both of two-10 minute overtime periods, but to no avail. Both the Herd and the Falcons were forced to walk away from the afternoon with a frustrating tie.
“Our biggest problem has been that we’ve been losing games and we haven’t been scoring,” Richards said. “At least we rectified that today.”
Solving the scoring difficulties was little consolation to Richards or the rest of the team after such a frustrating match.
“We’re underachieving drastically,” Richards said. “We have so many good players. I feel like I’m pulling every trick out of the bag that I can, and nothing seems to be working.”
