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W. Soccer Earns Win Against College of the Bahamas
A day after playing St. Thomas University the Lady Wildcats looked to get a win at home as they would take on a familiar opponent in the College of the Bahamas. The game kicked off at 12:30pm at North Miami Stadium. The weather was extremely windy and there were long periods of heavy rain, but the teams managed to stay composed and compete.
The first half was riddled with opportunities for JWU to take an early lead, but they just could not find the back of the net. With the wind at their back the College of the Bahamas were able to get behind the JWU backline a few times and create solid chances as well. Midway through the first half the Lady Wildcats finally broke through, as Forward Orniela Pitt (Fr.) found herself one on one in the C.O.B. penalty box. She calmly beat her defender and found the bottom right corner for her second goal of the season. "The strong wind made it extremely hard to keep possession today," commented Coach Dobrzanski. "I think anytime a player is in that situation it becomes a bit of panic mode, because they would rather just kick it out of our defensive third then make a mistake trying to play it out of the back. We had spurts of good possession and created a number of good chances, just could not finish them."
The first half would finish with the Lady Wildcats holding a narrow lead of 1-0. Now with the wind at their back JWU would have even more opportunities and solid chances from distance. "The weather started to calm a bit in the second half. But I think the biggest thing that changed was our work rate. We were starting to clearly win first and second balls, which led to more chances," Dobrzanski stated.
A few minutes into the second half the work would pay off as Orniela Pitt would add to her total to make the game 2-0 in favor of the Lady Wildcats. As momentum shifted towards JWU, Forward Darcilyn Butala (Fr.) found herself getting in on the scoring, as she added two goals of her own. Her first was a well placed ball into the box that Butala would finish to the lower corner. The second goal was a great heads up play by Butala, as JWU was awarded a direct kick right outside the C.O.B. penalty area. The C.O.B. defenders and goalkeeper were slow to setup, so Butala took it upon herself to take advantage. She would find the upper right corner, leaving the C.O.B. defense wondering where they had gone wrong. "That was a fantastic goal, mainly in the sense that Darci knew that it was a direct kick and she did not have to wait for the referee's whistle. She hit a good shot as well." Later on in the half Defender Cassandra Boateng (Fr.) would follow up a shot that was deflected out by the C.O.B. goalkeeper and tally her first of the year. The game would finish 5-0 and would provide the Lady Wildcats with a much deserved win.
"I think the players did an excellent job today dealing with the conditions and still finding a way to get it done. They did not use it as an excuse, they just kept plugging away and the goals came. Much like our losses, we need to build off of this and hopefully it will give us confidence moving forward. We got solid performances out of a lot of people today. I though GK Elizabeth Haley (So.) came up big when she needed to and got a shutout. Center Back Samantha Connealy (Fr.) did a good job judging balls played into out backline, that's a hard thing to do when you have wind as a factor. And overall Darcilyn Butala (Fr.) proved to be very dangerous today. She is only going to grow into that Forward role. Always a good day when you can close with a win," finished Dobrzanski.
The Lady Wildcats will now turn their attention to conference opponent Florida Memorial University (2-7-0, TSC 2-4-0) on Sunday Oct. 9th at 12pm.
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