Friday night, the women’s soccer team faced off against Clarkson at home on Harkness Field under the lights. Building off the momentum and strong play they had demonstrated in their previous game, the Red Hawks pulled out a 1-0 victory in overtime for their second win of the season.
The biggest change for the Red Hawks was the new style of play that they implemented for the first time, which as it turned out, produced very positive results.
Head Coach Eric Miller’s assistant came up with the idea to switch to a more direct style of play, with a deep sweeper, and the priority being to get the ball up the field with more applied pressure. The team spent much of the week practicing this new style, working hard to prepare for Friday’s game.
With the new look and approach, RPI was able to attack Clarkson and play most of the game in their opponent’s defensive zone.
The Red Hawks had many scoring opportunities, including two breakaways, and a shot that just missed, hitting the crossbar and ricocheting high. RPI would out-shoot Clarkson in the first half 10-4, and 6-0 in the second half.
For the entirety of regulation, however, the Red Hawks were unable to score. Fortunately, neither was Clarkson, thanks to a tight defense founded by a total team effort all the way around.
It was important to note the solid efforts of RPI at all positions. It was a total team contribution that gave the Red Hawks an edge.
While both teams fought hard, RPI dominated a good portion of the game, and with the score still knotted up at zero, looked to take advantage as the teams prepared for overtime.
Though Clarkson would have one more shot on goal in the extra period, in the end it was the Red Hawks that found a way to win.
At the 6:42 mark, Aust netted her shot just to the right of the goalie after the ball came back to her during an overlap. Her great shot ended the game and put a positive end to a day of great effort and performance by the young Red Hawks team. Aust also earned Rookie of the Week honors.
“We had practiced that situation as well as our new style of play all week, and it was really exciting to see everything start to pay off,” said Head Coach Eric Miller. He would add, “This game was a really good test for us, we had a lot of opportunities to score, and we played very well defensively.”
Both wins for the Red Hawks have been 1-0 victories, a good sign in the sense that their defensive efforts were strong enough to support minimal scoring, but it’s clear that the team still has to fight for everything that they get.
If the team can continue to play with a strong defense, and score some more goals off their increased opportunities, then perhaps the puzzle will be complete.
Saturday’s game against St. Lawrence was washed out, but with the win over Clarkson, RPI improves its record to 2-6-1, and will look to tack on another win to the total Tuesday night at home on Harkness Field to take on Hartwick College. The key for that game will be to use the positives they took out of the game versus Clarkson as they continuously look to improve. They will need to apply their new direct pressure once again and do their best to capitalize on more of the opportunities that they are given.
