An offensive explosion of five goals in 20 minutes advanced the Longwood women’s soccer team to rip apart Gardner-Webb 5-0 in their Big South opener on Sept. 24. The home win brings the Lancers to 4-6-0 on the season.
Heading into the game, the Lancers had been struggling offensively, scoring just seven goals all season. But after an end-to-end first half where both teams failed to score despite rattling the crossbar, the home side came out firing after the break. In the 51st minute, senior forward Amanda Spencer fed the ball to fellow forward Sheyenne Stretz, and the sophomore poked it home to make it 1-0.
“This week, we spent a lot of extra time on finishing. All of us forwards were out there for an hour before practice every day this week working on striking the ball and finishing,” said Stretz. “Today we just had it, we were there, we felt it.”
That practice paid off just two minutes later as sophomore forward Kathryn Miller put away the rebound off of a shot from Stretz. Now with a two goal advantage, head coach Todd Dyer’s side continued to pour forward following the breakthrough.
“I think we created a lot of similar chances in the first half. We just weren’t quite clinical enough in front of goal. Gardner-Webb still had their legs under them and were making things difficult for us,” said Dyer. “In the second half, it was just one of those deals where you just keep chopping. And once you get that first goal, it just kind of helps you relax a little bit more and things just kind of snowball from there.”
“I think once we got one we just had a lot of momentum to go forward,” added Stretz. “And we said once we got a couple in, the floodgates were going to open.”
In the 67th minute, junior midfielder Janese Quick curled a free kick inside the post, before Miller lofted one over the goalkeeper one minute later to make it 4-0. Sophomore defender Sydney Wallace drove home another rebound in the 71st minute, this time off sophomore midfielder Kelly Almeida’s shot to cap the win.
Despite tallying five goals and 30 shots, with 20 on target, Dyer was equally pleased with his defense, which picked up its second shutout of the season. Dyer highlighted the play of junior goalkeeper Maria Kirby, senior defender Jayden Metzger and Wallace as well as Quick’s role in front of the defense.
“That’s the spine of our defense, and they were rock solid today,” said Dyer. “If those four are on the same page and playing well, we’re going to be tough to break down.”
Dyer will hope the defensive quartet is up to the task in their next game against defending Big South champion Liberty. Longwood will travel to the conference favorites on Sept. 28.
