On Thursday afternoon, the Massachusetts women’s soccer team won a 4-2 thriller in the first of its two game road trip against George Washington. The Minutewomen (9-3-1, 4-1 Atlantic 10) extended their winning streak to four and have now won eight out of their last nine games.
Senior Bella Recinos led the way for the Minutewomen with a brace in an action packed game.
The second half was a rollercoaster of emotions for both teams where at one point the Minutewomen were two goals up on the Revolutionaries (3-5-3, 1-2 A-10) with less than 25 minutes to play. However, UMass had to hold its breath as George Washington tied the game within 10 minutes.
“2-0 felt like we were in pretty good control, but took our foot off the gas, got a little lackadaisical on our focus,” head coach Jason Dowiak said.
Bella Recinos made sure that the Minutewomen would come out of the nation’s capital with two of the four goals scored.
With just nine minutes left in the game, Morgan Bellamy threaded two defenders with her pass to an open Recinos as she fired a shot past the keeper breaking the tie which would be the eventual game winning goal.
Just a few minutes later, an attacking Emma Pedolzky carved past her defender and scored, sealing the deal for the Minutewomen with roughly five minutes remaining.
“Bella Recinos and Emma Pedolzky had some special, finishing moments to just skate their way through with so much confidence and so much control to get those last two goals,” Dowiak said.
Down 2-0, George Washington climbed back into the game in the 67th minute when the Minutewomen conceded a penalty. Isabel Kelly stepped up to the spot and converted to make it a one goal game with roughly 20 minutes to play. This was the first penalty UMass has given up this season.
About seven minutes later, the Revolutionaries stole an attempted clearance from keeper Bella Mendoza and evened the game at two, sending the fans into a frenzy.
“Finding ways to be more productive, more effective and more in control of games early on and then put our opponents away when we have the chances, so that we can not make it as stressful as it ended up being in the second half,” Dowiak said. “We had a few of our starters off at that point, trying to rest them… and still created a lot of chances, our reserves have been fantastic this year.”
The game had a slow start but in the 23rd minute, it was quickly halted by a miscue from the Revolutionaries on the defensive end. Grace Pinkus took advantage as she sent the ball to a sprinting Ashley Lamond who was at the left side of the box. The senior whipped the ball to the goal which was deflected off the freshman keeper Kate Silverstein which eventually ended up in the back of the net resulting in an own goal.
The Minutewomen applied the pressure early, keeping the ball in the George Washington half for the majority of the game. UMass didn’t take its foot off the gas with 14 shots compared to the Revolutionaries’ 10 shots.
UMass stands alone at the top of the A-10 rankings and look to make it five wins in a row on Sunday in Philadelphia as they take on St. Joseph’s at 1 p.m.
James Badeau can be reached at [email protected]
