By: Dylan O’Loughlin
BROCKPORT, NY - The Brockport Golden Eagles women’s soccer team played host to the Alfred Saxons following their first loss of the season this past Saturday against St. John Fisher. Sophomore McKenna Slate netted the lone goal of the game as the Golden Eagles prevailed over the Saxons 1-0.
“This one, I’m probably proudest of during the season,” Brockport head coach Mike Idland said. “That was kind of the first time we’d faced that this season. We took our lumps there in that game, first time conceding goals and first game we dropped. So figured we learned a lot about ourselves and how we would respond to that with this year’s version of the team, and I thought we responded great. We had to really, really work hard and earn this one, and I couldn’t be prouder of this group.”
The Golden Eagles put the loss in the rearview as soon as play started. Brockport gained possession of the ball right away and did not look back. After just eight minutes of action, junior midfielder Caitlyn Nelson connected with Slate on a crosser as she sent it into the back of the net for the eventual game-winner.
“I think we were really just looking to get on something,” Slate said. “We’re kind of in a sticky situation right now, coming from the weekend and I think it was just a real confidence booster for the team, and I’m happy I could do it.”
The Golden Eagles kept control of the game for the rest of the half. After 45 minutes of play, Brockport had seven shots with three of them on goal while Alfred tallied one shot on goal the whole half.
In the second half it was much of the same as the defenses shined. Alfred wasn’t able to gain possession for most of the half and when they did, the Saxons turned the ball over. The Golden Eagles didn’t get many chances to score either, on the night, Brockport registered 10 shots, four of which were on goal. Alfred only had two shots total that were both saved by junior goalkeeper Madeline McCrosson.
“We have a lot of people that are able to step into the back line and be that consistent,” McCrosson said. “It’s nice knowing that no matter what’s going on and whoever’s back there, we’re going to be strong. We’re going to be consistent. They all do exactly what their positions are supposed to do, and they stop everything from getting off. They make it easy to maintain the consistency back there.”
The Golden Eagles defense continues to shut down opponents as they have allowed only two goals on the season. As only three games remain in the regular season, they look to keep this momentum going into playoffs.
“We just had a killer mentality going out there,” Slate said. “Our coach said you don’t want to be the team who plays Brockport after a loss so we all just went out there and we knew what we had to do.”
Brockport improves to 11-1-1 (7-1) on the season and remains the top seed in the Empire 8. They look ahead to this Saturday Oct. 19 as they travel to Elmira to take on the Soaring Eagles (4-7-2/3-5). First kick is scheduled for 1 p.m.
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