The Longwood women’s soccer team used two second half goals to shutout the American University Eagles (0-1-0) 2-0 in their 2015 season opener handing them their first loss.
“I thought we progressively got better throughout the game,” said head coach Todd Dyer. “Certainly once we started scoring a few goals, we settled down a little bit.”
Possession was back and forth in the first half as American had four shots while Longwood (1-0-0) had five and six corner kicks as well.
“We had too many people running away from the ball in the first half, talked about it at halftime and I thought we were a lot more connected in the second half with our possession,” said Dyer.
The Lancers came out strong in the second half as they ripped 14 shots for a total of 19, eight on goal.
“I thought we were a lot better in the second half,” said Dyer. “With it being our first home game, the team was excited, they were a little bit nervy.”
Junior midfielder Amanda Spencer finally broke through in the 73rd minute when she scored from the top of the box, her first of the 2015 campaign. The Lancers didn’t waste much time adding onto that tally as senior midfielder Meghan Magee finished one of her own in the 78th minute off a rebound at the front of the net.
“Ultimately, we just needed some of our impact players to step up,” said Dyer. “Amanda (Spencer) did that with the first goal, Meghan Magee did that with the second goal and it just kind of builds confidence once things start going your way.”
Possession was almost even between the two teams, but in the end the Lancers used theirs to take over.
“American had a lot of the ball in the second half,” said Dyer. “They had some nice episodes of play but we kept them in front of us. They weren’t really breaking us down, they were connecting passes but not going through us or getting behind us and then we were more confident.”
Senior goalie Hailey Machen earned her first win of the season as she made five saves to preserve the shutout.
“In the end, I thought that was a very organized, stubborn and tough American (University) team and we just had to stick with it,” said Dyer. “I think we got what we deserved and just hopefully we can play better soccer moving forward.”
The Lancers were coming off a 1-1 tie in a preseason exhibition match against the East Carolina Pirates, one of seven non-conference opponents, including American, the Lancers faced in 2014.
Longwood has a quick turnaround as they will host the Youngstown State Penguins on Sunday, August 23 for the 6th annual G.A.M.E. (Greatest Athletics March Ever).
Dyer said the biggest key for such a short time period between games is to “get rested, get off our legs back under us, just kind of take a deep breath, know that we can be better, and just try to relax and let ourselves be when we start that next game.”
