Lady Red Wolves down women’s soccer team 2-0

A slow start Friday allowed the Arkansas State Red Wolves two goals in the first 12 minutes in their 2-0 defeat of the UCA women’s soccer team Friday afternoon at Bill Stephens Soccer Complex in Conway.
The Red Wolves (2-0-1) scored their first goal of the game 1:58 minutes into the match when freshman forward Jessica Jingblad scored on a pass from junior Ashley McMurtry.
Senior forward Kara Nitti gave the Red Wolves their second goal in the 12 minute on an assist from Jingblad.
Bears senior midfielder Elizabeth Brady said the two goals were a product of mental errors by the team and not being focused early in the game.
“To have a team score two goals on us in the first 12 minutes just shows we didn’t come out prepared to play,” Brady said. “If we would’ve been mentally prepared and focused, I know neither of those goals would’ve happen.”
Senior forward Marissa Hicks said the intensity the team needed at the first of the game was not there, but she was pleased the team did not give up after a bad start.
“Our team never gives up,” Hicks said. “We always fight and play hard until the very end like in a lot of games last year.”
The rest of the game went well for the Bears, but they were unable to score.
The Bears were able to get two shots on goal and five shots in total during the game, but were unable to score.
After the early goals by Arkansas State, the defense improved for the Bears, which started with junior goalkeeper Kelsey Gochnauer who blocked five shots on goal the rest of the day.
Arkansas State was able to get 10 shots in the entire game.
Brady said one positive she took away from the game against Arkansas State was the strength and toughness they showed in not giving up after a bad start.
“Getting down 2-0 in the first half usually brings a team down,” Brady said. “In our case it motivated us to work even harder. We outplayed ASU and had scoring opportunities, but we just couldn’t capitalize.”
Coach Tina Banham said she agreed the team has to find a way to finish opportunities along with starting games with the same intensity they finish games.
“We are young so it is a hard concept sometimes, but we will figure it out,” Banham said.
Banham said she was pleased with the team’s performance after getting down early.
“We made some corrections at halftime that helped us defend better,” she said.
Senior defender Caty McMains said she agreed coming out slow put the team in a big hole.
“Letting them score in the first 12 minutes was hard to come back from,” McMains said.
Gochnauer said the team will be working on fixing a lot of things this week in practice in preparation for their next game this Friday against Texas Southern.
“We don’t have any major things we need to fix,” Gochnauer said. “We are just working on cleaning up a lot of little things and once we do it I believe everyone is going to see a positive result.”
Gochnauer said the biggest thing for their next game was coming out ready to play.
“From the goalkeeper to the forwards to the girls coming in off the bench we have to be ready,” Gochnauer said. “We hate the feeling of losing and we are not ready to face that again.”
Hicks said she thought the most important thing to work on for their next game was the defensive shape of the team.
“Defensive shape from every single person on the team and just getting the ball in the back of the net will be the two things I think will help us beat Texas Southern and any other team in pre-conference and conference matches,” she said.
McMains said she agreed the defensive shape of the team needed to be worked on during practice this week along with finishing scoring oppurtunities when they are presented.
Brady said it was difficult to see so many scoring chances blown in the last game.
“We had multiple opportunities inside the 18 yard box last game, but couldn’t finish them,” Brady said, “We worked so hard to create these chances but just wasted them when it was time to put the ball in the back of the net. If we can capitalize on our opportunities against Texas Southern we should win.”
There were 20 fouls combined between the two teams.
UCA committed 11 fouls and recieved two yellow cards on fouls by freshman midfielder Lauren Trueheart in the 17th minute and freshman midfielder Vanessa Randall in the 52nd minute.
Trueheart also had one shot on goal along with sophomore midfielder Kristin Pollard.
The Bears (1-2) face off against Texas Southern at home this Friday at 4 p.m. at the Bill Stephens Soccer Complex.