Second half mistakes too much to overcome for women’s soccer

BY MARTIN SCHLEGEL

On Sunday, MSUM women’s soccer lost to Concordia-St. Paul 5-0. With the loss, MSUM slips to 1-5-3 while Concordia moved back to .500 at 5-5.

In the beginning minutes of the game, it appeared MSUM was going to score early, but Concordia clamped down on defense and stopped MSUM from getting any quality shots on net. With that, Concordia took over the pace of the game.

KAYLEIGH OMANG omangka@mnstate.edu

They were able to get plenty of looks on corner kicks but MSUM stayed strong defensively. Concordia was not able to send any stretch passes down the middle or shoot from quality areas until late in the first half. In the thirty-third minute, Jessica Bianchi scored the only goal of the half for Concordia. MSUM started the second half down by one with a chance to tie the game.

MSUM was playing a great game until the flood gates opened. The defense was clogging the middle and preventing good scoring chances. They unraveled defensively 15 minutes into the second half, letting in the first of four goals scored by Concordia.
“We lost our marks defensively,” head coach Rollie Bulock said after the game. “On the first goal, we identified the player to shut down and we just didn’t do it.”

The second half also included three yellow cards in a span of 12 minutes, two of which were issued to MSUM. The MSUM fans showed the most emotion of the game as they yelled at the referees. With the score 5-0, things were getting a little chippy, but in the final six minutes things settled down.

Except for the opening minutes of the first half and the closing minutes of the second half, MSUM was unable to generate scoring chances.

“It’s been our problem all year that we have been unable to finish and put the ball in the net,” Bulock said. “It would have been a different game had we been able to put the ball in the net.”

Next weekend MSUM will be on the road playing Winona State (7-3) and Upper Iowa (4-4-2). Moving forward, Bulock said the team will watch film from the previous games to identify weaknesses.