It was an exciting night at Barclay-Thomsen Field as the Women’s soccer team took on the Shenandoah Hornets (2-1-0). The Big Red women started with a record of (1-1-0). They had determination in their eyes and Denison students in the stands. It was their third straight home game from the women-under the lights and on this night they looked to capitalize.
Junior Maddy Regan was an assisting machine. In the beginning of the game Maddy Regan set up for a corner kick and it just passed through the middle of the field, in a perfect placement. Senior Jocelyn Festle managed to get up on top of the defense and headed the ball right into the goal; leaving the crowd ecstatic.
The Big Red had great ball control for the whole game. The Hornets stole a pass towards the end of the first half and shot from the far left side, scoring a goal barely passing senior Goal Keeper Andrea Karl. In the second half, Denison had ball control for practically the whole half. They fought and wore down the Hornets while continuing to take shots on goal and finally, in the 87th minute, their persistence paid off with a score.
With just three minutes and twenty-one seconds to go, freshman Naomi Barker took a pass from Maddy Regan and slammed it into the goal. The women still had minutes left to hang on to this win.
And in the last forty-five seconds they did allow the Hornets to get one more chance. They set up and took their shot but it was taken up by Karl and cleared. The Women’s Soccer team was 2-1.
Senior Jocelyn Festle commented on the first goal she scored after the game by saying, “It was a perfect ball from Maddy and it’s plays we have practiced before. I didn’t know it went in until I turned around. We have been doing many drills and working very hard to be ready for those moments.”
“We kept our composure and scored a great goal at the beginning of the game and then we relaxed and allowed them to come back to score on us,” said head coach, Gail Murphy. “We worked hard to bring momentum back our way. We had the ball most of the time and never gave in. It was great to see Naomi Barker come off the bench and hit the game winner in. We deserved to win that game. It is a young group and we are trying to learn each other’s strengths and find ourselves in one another. We saw a lot come together tonight and it was great to see, but we have still a lot of work to do.”
“I think we did a pretty good job of keeping the plan,” added Murphy. “At times we went away from it but it was expected with so much youth on the field and being the beginning of the season. We did a great job of switching the field and getting behind their defense. The ideas were there and that is more than half the battle, now we just need to add the technique. We were really proud of our team and really pleased at how they kept fighting.”
Their next game is Wednesday, Sept. 11th at 5 p.m.