MOON TOWNSHIP– The RMU women’s soccer team (5-10-2, 4-5-1 NEC) played the last game of their season on Friday, as they rolled to a 4-0 victory over St. Francis Brooklyn (0-16-0, 0-9-0 NEC).
Though the afternoon was quite windy and cold, both sides seemed not too bothered by the conditions, as both poured on the shots. Despite the lopsided score and the Terriers record coming into today, the action was decently even between the two squads. Still, the Colonials got on the board early when Brittany O’Connell potted a goal off of a nice pass from Sheridan Reid in the first 10 minutes. Their push continued into the 20-minute mark, where a nice quick up pass by Allie Ball and some good patience by Reid allowed the Colonials to score another one and go up 2-0.
This contest served as senior night for the Colonials, who honored their three seniors. When asked how she felt about playing in her last game here at RMU, Kelley said that “It was a long four years [playing here], but it was exciting and our team is always good to be with… on and off the field…”
And it was Kelley who fittingly got the next goal for the Colonials, the final of her career, late in the 1st half thanks to an impressive showing of in-tight passing by the Colonials, working from one side to the other to score. Despite the solid effort from the Terriers in the first half, they could not convert on their chances and RMU found themselves up 3-0 at the half.
The 2nd half featured much of the same in terms of chances, though St.Francis did pile on some pressure throughout. Despite this pressure, they failed to score. Chelsea Kingston got the only goal of the half for the Colonials when she shot from far out and the SFB keeper misplayed the ball, deflecting it into the net.
After the game, Coach Kowalski had positive things to say about today’s game, as well as over the entire season. “I think we played our best in our last game of the season, we move with [and] without the ball well… It’s unfortunate that this is our last game because I think we are playing our best soccer at this time. I think we were actually a little bit better team than our record indicated, [opponents] scored some incredible goals on us, some lucky goals… the ball wouldn’t go in for us.”
Though this season resulted in no playoffs for the Colonials, Kelley says that there is a lot for fans to look forward to for next season. “I think fans [should] look forward to a playoff, this team is young and they’ve played together for a couple years now, and I think they are going to go far.”
Coach Kowalski agreed, saying “I think the freshmen and sophomores got an incredible amount of experience going forward. [Next season] we are looking to reload a bit… we have some new recruits coming in and hopefully the ability to score more goals… and defensively we have good depth.”
The Colonials went through their struggles this season and have a lot to improve upon for next year. Still, this year was a learning experience for a lot of the roster, and they have a lot of potential going forward. I have a good feeling that things might be a lot different this time around next season.
