The Massachusetts women’s soccer team emerged victorious over Rutgers in their 2024 home opener, picking up a gritty 1-0 victory. After two road losses to start the season, the Minutewomen (1-2) picked up right where they left off at Rudd Field in 2023, where they were undefeated during the regular season.
Bella Recinos scored the game-winning and only goal of the contest in the 81st minute. Recinos received a deflected cross pass at the top of the 18-yard box, before craftily dribbling around a defender.
The senior midfielder put herself in a position to take a left-footed shot, which deflected off of Rutgers defender Emily Mason’s foot before finding the back of the net. Recinos was mobbed by teammates as the Minutewomen finally took their first lead of the season.
“We asked [Recinos] to play out of her normal role today,” Dowiak said. “We started her in more of a winger position but gave her a lot of freedom to go where she needed to go to get on the ball and I think it was a big factor in us being able to confuse them at times.”
“We’ve been waiting for a moment like [her goal] to happen this year where she got the opportunity to beat somebody off the dribble,” Dowiak continued. “She spends hours mastering her craft and that finish was all of those hours coming together to present the moment and her having the confidence and awareness of how she could create that shot so I’m so proud of her.”
What Sunday afternoon’s game may have lacked in offense, it was more than made up for in penalties and on-field drama.
In the 55th minute, Rutgers’ Gia Girman got called for a foul on a slide tackle that didn’t connect with the ball. Attempting to restart quickly, Ashley Lamond hustled to the ball but got tangled up with Girman as she was attempting to pick it up. Both players’ blood pressure began to boil as they started wrestling on the ground, where multiple punches were thrown by both Girman and Lamond.
Players from both sides rushed to pull the two off each other, and both Girman and Lamond were given red cards, leaving both teams with 10 players on the field to finish the last 35 minutes of the game.
Both teams faced foul trouble with a combined total of 29 fouls. Rutgers had one less foul than UMass, and both teams tallied three bookings, one red card and two yellow cards each.
“It felt like every 30 seconds [the coaching staff] were reevaluating how the adjustments we were making were doing,” Dowiak said of having to manage through the fouls. “To the players’ credit, they figured things out before we could get them information at times. I’m so incredibly proud of the attitude to evolve in the game and deal with the circumstances.”
The two flagship teams put up strong defensive performances. Bella Mendoza continued to be a strong backbone for the Minutewomen defense in goal, pitching her first shutout of the year while making four saves. In the 86th minute, she made a diving save to keep the Minutewomen ahead.
“[Mendoza] was able to put on display just what she’s capable of doing. She’s such a gifted, athletic, and aggressive goalkeeper and she protected our goal unbelievably,” Dowiak said. “She played with a lot of composure when we were up against it and she really organized us and kept our group aware of where threats were. She was just excellent in all areas of her game today.”
“We can play with anybody in the country,’ Dowiak said. “A post came out and [Rutgers] is one of the top 20 most successful programs over the last five years. We can play with them, we can play with anybody, and the heart and attitude that we witnessed from our group today is just like the example of what we know this group is capable of. At the end of our last talk, I asked them to make a pact that we don’t show up on any day, practice or game days, with any other effort than what we saw today, and we have such a great group, mature group leaders are incredible on our team and I believe we will see that for Harvard.”
The Minutewomen return to Rudd Field to face Harvard University on Thursday, August 29th. Kickoff is set for 2:00 pm.
“I’ve never been more proud of the team before,” head coach Jason Dowiak said. “For me as a coach, it was a perfect performance.”
Devin Lippman can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter/X @devinlippman.
