The Brockport Golden Eagles Women’s Soccer team kicked off its season with a 5-0 win over the Alleghany Gators at home. This marked the first game for any Brockport team in the Empire 8 since they joined the conference. Transfer student Sierra Edwards led the way, scoring two goals and picking up an assist.
“It’s a very nice feeling being able to contribute. I don’t want to take all the credit it was a team effort,” Brockport forward Sierra Edwards said.
The Golden Eagles came out of the gates dominating the ball. Alleghany goalie Madison Lemanski made three saves early to settle in. At the 28-minute mark, Jaylah Cossin picked up where she left off last year and opened the scoring with her first goal of the season from an assist by Edwards. Cossin scored 11 goals and dished out six assists while being named to first-team all-region last year.
“This season for me I just feel really grateful to be back,” Cossin said. “We have a great group of girls so just getting the momentum started and getting the pieces to fall together in the first couple of games is really important.”
After the goal, the Golden Eagles kept its foot on the pedal, but Lemanski picked up six more saves to keep the game at 1-0 going into halftime. Lemanski ended the half with nine saves. Goalie Karissa Champion had one save for the Golden Eagles.
“We asked are we having fun or not,” Brockport Head Coach Mike Idland said. “A big part of the second half was ramping up the tempo of soccer, which we did.”
Brockport started the second half out on fire with Sierra Edwards nabbing her first goal of the year and less than a minute later scoring another. Maryalice Skutnik had the assist on Edward’s second goal.
Madeline McCrosson was in net to start the second half for the Golden Eagles and made a huge save to keep the game at 3-0.
At the 54th-minute mark, Skutnik netted the fourth goal of the game off a through ball from Megan Gerber.
Freshman Marisa Closson scored her first career goal in the 68th minute to solidify the final score of 5-0 for the Golden Eagles. McKenna Slate picked up the assist.
The Green and Gold continued its weekend line up going in 1-0 with an afternoon game against Skidmore College the next day.
Although it was a quick turnaround for Brockport, they never let up. Champion started in net and secured three saves for the Golden Eagles. Same as the night before, McCrosson finished in net with two saves.
Skidmore outshot Brockport 13-10; though, neither team found the back of the net in either half. The game ended in a draw leaving Brockport 1-0-1 to start off the season.
The Golden Eagles will stay home as they take on Thiel College at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7.
