The two-year winless streak for the BG women’s soccer team has come to an end. In a 8-0 win over the Chicago State Cougars the young Falcon team was able to bring home its first regular season victory.
After what has been called a tough week for the Falcons by head coach Lindsay Basalyga, BG was able to take the next step in its rebuilding process of the women’s soccer program.
“This win has been a long time coming and I’m happy that the players can finally feel the reward for their hard work and discipline,” she said.
Against the Cougars, who are having the inaugural season for their women’s soccer program, the Falcons scored four goals in each half.
BG goalkeeper Lauren Cadel called Sunday’s win a turning point but she also said the team can’t lose focus now on its process as the season progresses.
The Falcons had their first shutout of the season and Cadel said she wouldn’t have been able to do it without her defensive line.
BG senior Sidney Huth said the offensive effort against the Cougars was very dynamic and it felt great to have finally been able to score a lot of goals.
“We have been through a lot as a team and we all just wanted it real bad,” she said.
The Falcons have now scored 10 goals during the first five games of the season, which is already one more goal than during the entire 2013 season.
“We scored some great goals tonight and the defense walked away with a shutout,” Basalyga said. “We will enjoy this win a bit longer than normal and will definitely come into training on Tuesday with a stronger sense of belief.”
The weekend started out with a home game for the Falcons at Cochrane Stadium against the Cleveland State Vikings.
Soccer games are generally over after 90 minutes of play, yet on Friday night the final whistle was blown with 58 seconds still on the clock due to severe lightning.
Up to that point BG was down 2-1 against the Vikings.
BG head coach Lindsay Basalyga said Friday’s performance were the best 89 minutes of soccer from her team to date.
“I’m so proud of the level that the players chose to play at tonight,” Basalyga said. “We had a few moments where we switched off and unfortunately in our process and where we are in our process we can’t switch off because we can’t rely on coming back. And that is what I told the team.”
Falcon freshman forward Skylar Fleak scored the leading goal after 28 minutes with a beautiful 23-yard shot going over the Vikings goalkeepers’ head into the back of the net.
The Falcons’ lead only lasted three minutes when Vikings player Sarah Kaiser took a shot from the left side of the box tying the game 1-1.
BG came out in the second half looking to find a way to score and take the lead again. In the 65th minute however, Chloe Fadenholz found her way trough the Falcons defense scoring the 2-1 lead for Cleveland State.
“We have to stay switched on for 90 minutes until we have a belief system that giving up goals is part of the game but that we know we can work ourselves back in,” she said.
Falcons goalkeeper Lauren Cadel had another strong performance against the Vikings making a total of 10 saves.
“Lauren kept us in the game and she has given us some freedom in terms of the system we want to play because we are confident in her to make plays that keep us in the game,” Basalyga said.
After this weekend, the Falcons are now 1-4-0 during the 2014 season.
