Jock Journal: Women's Soccer Entry No. 2

The Oswego State women's soccer team lost the home opener yesterday against Saint Lawrence, 1-0. We played a good game though, that's for sure. We played tough and worked hard to hold off their strong offense, but we just weren't able to retaliate and put a goal of our own into the back of the net.

Practice had been going well throughout the week and we really focused on corner kicks, seeing as in two of their games, they scored four goals off of corners. We wanted to make sure they didn't score that way. They didn't. Our connecting passes were getting even better and our fitness levels were increasing...

Except mine.

On Tuesday, two days before the big game, we were doing fitness at the end of practice-sprinting x number of yards down and back- when I planted my left foot wrong. I went down pretty quick and pretty hard-my body went one way and my knee stayed put. Trainer thinks I tore my acl and there's possibly some mcl and miniscus damage as well. I have some doc appts coming up, so I'll keep you posted on that. For now, I'm on the sidelines...Boo.

Anyway, back to the game. Our heads were in it and everyone was excited to play the first home game. Amazing warm up tracks were kickin in the locker room and presents were given throughout the team from secret "locker buddies." Set to go, we got serious and headed out to the field to warm up and show off our A-game.

The game was in a dead-lock for the entire first half. 50-50 balls went back and forth throughout the game and both teams shared possession for the most part. We ended the half at 0-0 and overall, we were happy with the way we played. But we were hungry for a goal.

Apparently, Saint Lawrence was craving that goal just a little bit more.

Rookie Kristina Peso outran two of our defenders and was able to slip a shot past Toby 65:23 into the game. There's much to say to our defense though, because the Saints had 14 shots on us while we had a measly two, and only one of their shots went in.

We had a few scoring opportunites at the end of the game and to be frank, we were robbed of a penalty kick in the last ten minutes of the game. One of the Saints defenders slapped a ball back down on the bounce with her forearm right in front of the ref. The foul went uncalled, which would have given us a penalty shot because the defender committed the foul in the box. The ref even admitted that she made the foul, but for some reason it didn't qualify as a handball. I still can't fathom the concept, so I won't bother trying to make you understand it.

Regardless of all that, we had two or three more scoring opportunities in the remaining minutes. Unfortunately, we weren't able to capitalize on them. The clock ran out and we came out with a loss. It was a tough blow to take, but I'm confident that we'll bounce back.

Next up: Away game at Hamilton on Saturday at 3 p.m. Hopefully we get some travelers to come watch.

Samantha Shelton, #00
Goalkeeper
Women's Soccer