The Rams got out of a tightly contested match against Concord Thursday afternoon in a 0-0 tie with the goalkeepers for both teams. With the tie the Rams’ record now sits at 3-6-1 and the Mountain Lions are 5-3-2 on the season.
It was a game defined by good team defense where shots on goal were hard to come by, Shepherd had three shots on goal in full time and two overtime periods and Concord had four. A pair of freshman goalies for the Rams in Lulu Fricks and Meghan Byers combined for two saves a piece to keep the game scoreless and Concords goalkeeper Katie Maher played the entirety of the game.
“I’m very proud of this group of ladies and thought that they had a great performance from start to finish,” Rams head coach Emily Hester said. “The team never gave up for 110 minutes of play. We have been talking a lot about playing a full game at their best and today we did that.”
The Mountain Lions outpaced the Rams in total shots at 17-7, all but four were off target. The Rams defense played well and caught Concord offsides five times showing the communication between the back line.
The two best goal chances came in the first overtime period with sophomore midfielder Emma Bernadoni’s shot going just wide and freshman midfielder Braden Pickett’s shot was saved by Maher.
With the tie, Hester still sees ways to get the team better, “An area of improvement for us to address in practice before our next game would be that offensively we need to be more dynamic in the final attacking third and defensively we need to clean up a couple items.”
The Rams will welcome Urbana to Shepherdstown on Sunday afternoon in their next game at 2:30 p.m. which is also youth soccer day.
Vaughn is the sports editor for The Picket. He can be reached at vbrewe01@rams.shepherd.edu
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