By Louis Galdos
Elm Staff Writer
The Shorewomen’s Soccer team had a busy week, facing two opponents at home.
First, on Wednesday, Sept. 18, the Shorewomen took on Salisbury University. The game was a close and competitive match, but unfortunately, Salisbury was able to take the lead early and hold onto it for the duration of the game, winning 1-0.
Senior defender, and team captain, Maia Duval described the team’s approach to preparing for these past two games.
“We are focused on the game and have spent this week preparing to play them. Coach Reilly, Coach Kovarik, and Coach Ehrensbeck work tirelessly to make sure we are as informed as we can be,” Duval said. “We have a lot of talent on the team this year and we are looking forward to testing the Salisbury Women’s Soccer team.”
In only the first 2:45 minutes of the match, Salisbury University scored their game-winning goal off of a cross pass immediately in front of the goal, since junior Annalie Buscarino was not able to put hands on it.
Coach Tom Reilly describes the preparation behind these two important games.
“We are decided underdogs heading into both matches. We have to be able to limit both teams’ attacks while finding opportunities to get at their backline on the counterattack,” Reilly said. “We are confident that we can play our own style and cause them both some problems but will need to execute in front of goal to get the results we want in terms of winning games.”
On Saturday, Sept. 21, the Shorewomen battled Gettysburg College at home. The game was tightly-contested until the second half, when Gettysburg managed to put one past the Shorewomen. They defended the lead for the duration of the game, winning 1-0.
The first half ended with only one shot on goal for the Shorewomen, with a penalty kick executed by sophomore Erin O’Reilly that was stopped by Gettysburg’s defenders.
Duval described her personal approach when preparing for the games.
“As I prepare for our first in-conference match, I believe that it is important to keep working hard and keep up the intensity. In order to beat a team as strong as Gettysburg, we need to go into the upcoming practices recalling the joy of winning our first Centennial Conference game of the year in 2018 against the same team,” she said.
After a slow first half, the Bullets had a shot on goal a mere 20 seconds into the second half immediately saved by Buscarino, who ended up totaling four saves for the match.
Senior captain Cayla Marcinko also had a shot on goal in the second half, but it was picked up with ease by the Bullet’s goalkeeper Maddie Cuningham.
Reilly said, “We are ready to prove that we are a team that keeps getting better every year. Our players have been anticipating a challenging, but exciting, game and we are all ready to get our first Centennial Conference win for the season.”