On Wednesday, Oct. 19, the Shepherd Rams women’s soccer team had a hard time on offense and defense in their road loss to Notre Dame College in South Euclid, Ohio, falling by a 4-0 score.
From start to finish, the Falcons of Notre Dame would be clicking on all cylinders. They put pressure on Shepherd’s midfielders to control the possession of the ball.
At the 11:08 mark, Notre Dame would score their first goal, as junior midfielder Norah Barnes would kick one past Rams junior goalkeeper Christi LaBella to give the Falcons a 1-0 lead.
A few minutes later, at the 17:29 mark, Falcons senior forward Jackie Corrigan would pass it to fellow senior forward Alexis Manoa for the open shot. Manoa would send it home to make the score 2-0 in favor of the Falcons.
The Rams did not create many opportunities for themselves, as they only had a total of three shots in the game, with two of them being on net. On the other hand, Notre Dame had 11 total shots, with eight of them being on net.
In the first half, the Rams did not have any production on offense, only having one shot. This shot came from freshman defender Katherine Eddy, who sent the shot wide of the goal.
Midway through the first half, Falcons head coach Mike Shiels would begin making several substitutions, but the 2-0 score would remain the same at the end of the first half.
In the second half, Shepherd looked to turn things around, as they got a corner kick opportunity early on. Senior defender Brianna Gorman would send one into the box, but the Rams could not capitalize.
Gorman has had great success taking corner kicks this season, so she is normally the one who gets the corner kick opportunities for the Rams.
Notre Dame would begin to start their offensive attack again, moving the ball well among one another. This allowed them to get past Shepherd’s defenders constantly throughout the game.
At the 68:27 mark, Manoa would score her second goal of the day off of a set piece, giving the Falcons a 3-0 lead.
The Rams did not play with their usual effort on defense. A picture of the Rams’ day on defense could be summed up with an own goal that the Rams committed at the 75:30 mark.
Facing such a large deficit in the second half, the Rams would be unable to make a desperate comeback.
The Falcons would go on to easily win the game by a 4-0 score, giving the Rams their fifth loss of the season.
The Rams will look to redeem themselves Sunday afternoon, Oct. 22, against Wheeling Jesuit in Shepherdstown for Senior Day. Kickoff is at 3:30 p.m.
Justin Cole is a Sports Writer for The Picket. He can be reached at jcole07@rams.shepherd.edu