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WILLIAMSTOWN,
MA. – Williams women's soccer (10-0-0, 6-0-0 in
the NESCAC) used gritty soccer to overcome conference opponent
Trinity (3-3-2, 2-4-1) by a 4-1 margin, scoring their final three
goals off second-chance opportunities in windy, cold conditions at
Cole Field this afternoon.
“Something we learned yesterday [against
Bates] was that we cannot take our chances for granted,” said
Williams' head coach Michelyne Pinard.
“We're working on framing the goal on every shot, and
we had a willingness today to do anything to score.”
The Ephs looked solid from the opening
whistle, and scored two goals in a five-minute span mid-way through
the first half.
Senior Brianna Wolfson put the Ephs up off a feed from Nicole
Stenquist. Wolfson
managed a shot in light of a charging Bantams keeper, and laced the
ball to the far right side of net.
Three minutes later, Bret Eisenhart doubled
the Ephs lead.
Wolfson was involved in the action again, starting off the play
this time. Eisenhart
retrieved a pass from Wolfson, and quickly charged at net with the
goalie coming out.
The Williams forward shot the ball, while both herself and the
keeper tripped.
Eisenhart recovered quickly, capitalizing on the open net, and
tapped the ball in for the 2-0 advantage.
The momentum for the Ephs was high, but
Trinity shifted the nature of the game with one swift kick from
Jenny Ley. Ley placed
a clean ball to the far left post from the right wing to cut the
Ephs lead in half at the 28:53 mark. The Ephs
w
ere forced on the defensive for more time than they are used to
for the remainder of the opening period.
“Trinity is a great team,” said
Pinard. “They
do good things on the ball, and that made us comfortable
defensively. It took
us a while to work through it, because these young women want to
play great soccer and when it doesn't go there way it can get
frustrating. In the
end, we did a good job of pushing through it.”
Annelise Snyder finally brought the Ephs some
relief in the 66th minute of play.
Stenquist found herself alone in center field with options to pass
to three Ephs forwards with plenty of speed. She
chose Snyder who raced for the ball and got a shot off that banged
the right post. The deflected ball landed
directly in front of the goal. With the Bantams
keeper down from attempting to save Snyder's initial shot, a
Trinity defender tried to clear the ball but instead nicked Snyder
who directed the ball to net for the 3-1 score.
The Ephs final goal came with just over a
minute in regulation.
Bridget Gallagher played a cross from the right side to Sam Vilboa
who in turn attempted a shot on goal. The ball
landed straight at the goalie, but she swatted at the ball allowing
for Clark to collect on the left post. Clark
unleashed a shot, but the Bantams keeper made another quality save
by diving for the ball. The goalie could not
keep her heroics up any longer, as Clark capitalized on her first
blocked shot and the fallen keeper to bring the final score to
4-1.
The Ephs will travel to Bowdoin this Saturday
for a 1:30 p.m. start time.
