By: Brayden Peters
BROCKPORT, NY - It was a great day to be a senior on the Brockport Golden Eagles women’s soccer team. The Golden Eagles shutout the Utica Pioneers 2-0 on Senior Day. Both goals came from junior defender Diane Lange, which were the first two of her collegiate career.
“I thought we played really great,” Lange said. “It kind of took us a little bit to get into the game, but at the end, we really just took over them.”
Lange’s first goal came 7:46 into the game, and it came on Brockport’s first shot. She buried a kick to the right of freshman goalkeeper Emily Duro to give the Golden Eagles a 1-0 lead.
“I knew I had the power on the shot,” Lange said. “So, I just knew I had to take a second to calm down and fix my placement.”
The second goal came a little over the 56th minute mark into the game. Lange placed the ball towards the top left corner of the net, and it got by Duro to add insurance onto Brockport’s lead.
Brockport dominated in the shots category. The Golden Eagles had 13 shots, with six of them being on net. Brockport also had some solid scoring chances due to the number of corner kicks they had. They had eight corners on the day compared to Utica’s zero.
Outside of the fact that the Golden Eagles forced a shutout, they played strong defensively. Brockport caused Utica to have issues moving the ball out of their own territory, reducing the number of scoring chances that they had in the game. The Pioneers ended the day with just one shot, which wasn’t on goal, and zero corner kicks.
It was a win that was memorable to some of the seniors and the lone fifth year forward in Jaylah Cossin, as this game would be their last regular season game at Huntley Parker Jr. Field.
“Coming in today was just all about making the most of every moment,” Cossin said. “Just playing for my team, playing for me and just really making sure I was present and able to enjoy everything. I really loved it.”
The Golden Eagles started off the first half having good control of the ball. Although they weren’t able to get a shot off for the first few minutes of the half, they made a few tackles to keep the ball in Utica territory. Soon after, however, the Pioneers were able to maintain possession of the ball in the offensive zone.
Utica continued to apply the pressure on offense, creating more scoring chances and getting shots off. Even with Brockport being able to enter their own territory without a lot of trouble, the Golden Eagles were unable to record a shot.
Although Lange did score to get Brockport up 1-0, it didn’t deter Utica from consistently moving the ball into enemy territory. They got close to the penalty area on multiple occasions, but good defense and tackling from the Golden Eagles prevented the Pioneers from getting shots off.
Brockport began to tighten up on defense as the Pioneers started to struggle to move the ball out of their own zone.
Although the rest of the first half was quiet, Brockport’s offense created more scoring opportunities that were not converted. The Golden Eagles ended the half with six shots, five of them being on goal, while the Pioneers only recorded one shot that wasn’t on goal.
“Just playing ball to feet, making space on the field, you know, not cramming it when we didn’t need to,” Cossin said. “Just really valuing our possession of the ball today.”
Utica started off the second half controlling the ball for the first couple of minutes and were able to move the ball into the penalty area. However, their struggles getting shots off continued as they weren’t able to get one shot off.
It was the complete opposite for the Golden Eagles as a little over 10 minutes into the second half, Brockport recorded four shots, with one of them being Lange’s second goal.
From there, it was all gas, no breaks for the Golden Eagles. They continued to keep the ball in enemy territory and pushed the ball towards the penalty area while preventing Utica from moving the ball out of their zone. The Pioneers only got the ball into offensive territory twice in the second half by the 68th minute.
“I think that everywhere on the field we just picked up our defense, like in the midfield, the forwards” Lange said. “On defense, we just stayed tighter and more in the middle and everything tied together.”
Both teams were stifling on defense the rest of the way. Although both sides were able to push the ball towards each other’s penalty areas, tackles forced multiple changes of possession. Brockport’s defensive performance was more than enough to help them secure their 2-0 win.
The Golden Eagles improved to 13-1-1 with the victory. Brockport will finish their regular season on the road when they take on Geneseo on Wednesday at 4 p.m. Geneseo currently sits in second place behind the Golden Eagles in the Empire 8.
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