Eleven days – a cancelled road trip down south and one of the worst tragedies in United States history – separated the last two games played by the Massachusetts women’s soccer team [2-1].
After this weekend’s trip to Georgia and Auburn was cancelled, UMass coach Jim Rudy looked for, and found, a team willing to play at Totman Field on the UMass campus. The Binghamton Bearcats [3-2] were scheduled to take on Northeastern Saturday and had made the trip east, but school officials canceled the game on Friday.
Binghamton coach Jeff Leightman accepted the invitation to play, viewing it as a good opportunity for his team in its first year in Division 1 to take the field against a perennial powerhouse.
Meanwhile, the UMass squad saw Sunday’s match up as an opportunity to end a long string of practices and get away from the television for a while.
“We were ready play,” team captain Sarah Cook said. “Having practice for a week and a half straight isn’t my cup of tea, I’d rather play games.”
Despite the real possibility of showing rust and being distracted, the Minutewomen came out of the gate pushing the ball up the field and playing with the ferocity of a beast that was caged for too long.
A change in rotation helped the UMass squad as Rudy gave freshman Stephanie Santos her first start at forward.
“We flip-flopped the starting lineup, with Santos starting and Wideberg coming off the bench because Weedy’s been a little nervy and thinking about things too much,” Rudy said. “We felt that if we bring her off the bench and let her see the game first, she can figure out what the flow is and then sort of mesh in with it.”
The move certainly helped out both players. Santos scored the first two goals of the game, each coming off of assists by junior midfielder Martha Conover.
After a near miss just minutes before that hit the right post, sophomore forward Erin Lilly cut the ball back on the defender and let the ball fly across the face of the goal, past the diving BU goalkeeper, Lauren Cherry, and into the net at 44:38.
The 3-0 lead in the first half only scratches the surface of the level of domination achieved by the Minutewomen in the first 45:00. UMass out shot the Bearcats 10-1 and tallied 4 corners without allowing one.
Rudy decided to pull goalkeeper and reigning A-10 Defensive Player of the Year, Julie Podhrasky, to start the second half. Sophomore Kelly Nigh replaced the senior in goal.
Another team leader, senior Brooke Bartlett, did not return to action in the second half. The all-Atlantic 10 first team selection hurt her knee just 14 minutes into the game and roughed it out for the remainder of the first, but couldn’t go in the second.
“We were more precautionary there,” Rudy said. “We just didn’t want to press it too far. I felt confident in the people we put in there. I thought Andrea Trujillo did a really nice job, worrying the hell out of their left flank.”
Trujillo and the rest of the UMass offense continued to wreak havoc, even without last year’s leading scorer.
Lilly began the second half with her second shot off the post and BU fought to get the ball out of its defensive third, but Cook and the rest of the Minutewoman defense refused to let the ball cross midfield.
At 58:26, Santos completed the hat trick, roofing the ball from inside the box, giving the Maroon and White a comfortable 4-0 lead.
Mere minutes later, Santos’s domination frustrated the BU defense, which led to a forearm that awarded UMass a penalty kick. Senior Kathleen Machamer was called on to take the shot. The Colorado native drilled the ball into the bottom-left portion of the net, but Cherry guessed right in the goal and made a terrific diving save.
Nigh kept shutout hopes alive with a nice diving save on a shot by a wide-open Tanya Wowk.
The zero was lifted from the scoreboard, however, on a miscue on a corner kick. Junior Bearcat Tracey Anderson sent the ball high and directly at Nigh on the near side of the goal. The keeper did a nice job of getting to the ball, but had it smack off her hands and bounce right into the goal at 78:56.
Freshman defender Carly Turman put the game out of reach, 5-1, at 87:12. The Pleasant Hill, Calif. native got control of the ball in traffic and drilled it past Cherry into the goal.
Katelyn Jones put the final nail in BU’s coffin on a breakaway a minute later off a nifty assist from Wideberg on the outside that allowed Jones to score.
“Wideberg [had] a great assist,” Rudy said. “That was really classy and very unselfish. Hopefully that is a sign that our freshman have picked into our team spirit that it doesn’t matter who does it as long as somebody does it.”
Binghamton captain Merri Monenare dropped a ball over Nigh’s head and into the goal from 15 yards out with just five seconds left, making the final score 6-2.
After a tough 5-0 loss to the University of Connecticut on September 5th at home, UMass was finally able to defend its home turf again, and earned its first home victory of the season.
“It was good to get a home win,” Cook said. “And to beat a team [convincingly] is always good, too.”
With restored confidence, the Minutewomen will have a week to prepare for their next match up against Rhode Island at Totman on Sunday afternoon.
