Offense was a struggle on Thursday night for the Fort Lewis College women’s soccer team. The Skyhawks tied St. Mary’s University, 0-0, in each team’s opening game of the season.
It was a hard-fought contest with plenty of battles in the midfield for possession. Sixteen fouls were called and six yellow cards were given out. However, neither team could challenge the opponent’s goalkeeper with quality shots.
“Considering how hard they (St. Mary’s) were pressing and how direct and sort of nasty, they wanted to make the game, I was pretty happy with the overall energy and performance of the team,” FLC head coach Damian Clarke said. “You're always disappointed to not get a win. But, realistically, I have a lot of players who got a huge minutes and the team definitely took a step in the right direction.”
FLC and St. Mary’s moved to 0-0-1 overall after the tie. FLC freshman goalkeeper Trinity Lujan had five saves in her first start. St. Mary’s Haley Faucette finished with four saves.
Skyhawk junior Amber Otts showed her impact early on. She did a great job of using her body to win the ball; Otts also made some great runs down the left side to generate offense.
St. Mary’s struggled to generate good looks early against FLC’s defense. Senior Renee Juna was like a free safety on defense with how she broke up St. Mary’s passes and was the last line of defense for the Skyhawks.
“Defensively, we were pretty tough,” Clarke said. “Dealing with long ball after long ball, doing your best and not let it hit the ground and not let those moments where the ball bounces and you get caught in transition too many times. We did quite well … the way they play is difficult to play against.
FLC retained possession for most of the last 15 minutes of the first half. St. Mary’s nearly took the lead on a free kick from just outside the 18-yard box with two minutes left. Shelby Paniagua hit a beautiful strike that went off the crossbar.
The Skyhawks had a slight majority in possession in the first 10 minutes of the second half. FLC senior Abigail Nkrumah continued to combine well with her teammates and she drew fouls.
The Rattlers started to possess more in the middle of the second half. However, they didn’t make Lujan work too hard with many tough shots.
FLC had a few decent looks from corners and shots beyond the 18-yard box in the last few minutes. However, the buzzer went off and the game ended scoreless.
“It’s just taking chances,” Clarke said about his offense. “Stop looking for the perfect pass; stop looking for the perfect shot. You can’t score if you don’t take chances. We’ve been trying to get the team to be a little more confident in practice. Deflections and all sorts of things happen when you smash it toward goal. Hopefully, we’ll learn from that.
The Skyhawks head to Grand Junction on Saturday to play St. Edward’s University at 2 p.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
