SUNY Brockport’s women’s soccer team played their first SUNYAC division game against New Paltz Saturday afternoon at home. Kiley Longin scored the game deciding goal midway through the second half just outside the outstretched arms of New Paltz’s goalkeeper, giving the Golden Eagles a 1-0 victory.
After the game, Longin spoke on the importance of capitalizing on the opportunities you get.
“Every opportunity that we get is extremely important to try to capitalize on. There are some games where our opportunities can be really limited so it’s essential to take advantage of those chances when we can,” Longin said.
Brockport got off to a slow start, attempting only one shot in the first half. The Golden Eagles spent the majority of the first half on defense, having to defend against four shots from New Paltz. Junior goalkeeper Kayla Usborne had another strong outing, earning her fourth shutout of the season. Three of Usborne’s five saves came in the scoreless first half.
The Golden Eagles came out on the attack for the second half, attempting six shots to their lone attempt in the first half. Coach Idland said that it was the teams defensive aggressiveness that lead to the improved offensive second half.
“We tried to play faster,” Idland said. “We felt like we were a little bit behind in that part of the game defensively. We were losing 50-50’s, and balls in the air so we tried to tune up that part of the game and play more on the front foot in the second half.”
Longin’s game winner came off an assist from team goal and assist leader, Julia Mascaro, in the 21 minute of the second half.
“I think that as a team we need to start the game with better confidence. Once we started to play as a team, we created more scoring opportunities and had better control of the game,” Mascaro said.
The Golden Eagles don’t have much time to savor this victory as they host Oneonta tomorrow at 2 p.m.. Coach Idland knows that every team presents a different challenge and needs his team to have a short-term memory.
“All these games are uniquely different.” Idland said. “They’re all very challenging, each team in the league can beat the other teams in the league and Oneonta looks different than New Paltz does… I think the big question is, are we mature enough to get right back to work, be professional about the game tomorrow and kind of forget about this game.”
