The Rowan women’s soccer team fell to Montclair State in a tight game by a score of 2-1 in an overtime upset that ended the team’s New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) championship hopes.
The last time Rowan faced off against Montclair State they won by a score of 3-1 earlier this season, with the offense falling behind early. This time around the team got a shot off within the first minute of the game.
“In the first twenty minutes during the game, we were moving the ball, and doing great,” head coach Scott Leacott said.
The team was unable to break through in that first twenty minutes but did apply pressure to the Montclair State goalie Salange Bell, which was key since she won NJAC goalie of the year.
NJAC all-conference team midfielder Lianna SanFelice scored the first goal of the game. SanFelice has not been known for scoring the ball this year, being the NJAC leader in assists, but was able to put the ball in the back of the net.
“She got a shot and put it in the mix and just found out what happened with the ball,” Leacott said. “Angela Oliveto made a great run into the box and did not touch the ball but when she ran into the box she got the goalkeeper to freeze a little bit. She did a great job and SanFelice did a great job of putting the ball in a good spot.”
The team got many opportunities to score in the second half but was not able to finish. In Leacott’s opinion it was not passing the ball at the right times.
“We got a little selfish, we do good when we can pass the ball,” Leacott said.
There were many questionable calls during this point of the game, with Bella Clark getting a yellow card, Mackenzie Clement fouling while being double-covered, and even Leacott getting a yellow card on the sidelines. There were a few occurrences of the referee running into Rowan’s players.
Leacott declined to comment about the officiating after the game.
Montclair State put their first goal on the board with less than three minutes left in the game on a crosser that was headed in by Aileen Cahill.
“We just got to close out the game,” Leacott said. “We are under five minutes and we miss clear five balls. They take advantage of that stuff.”
The other goal was scored in the second overtime which broke the hearts of the team and the Rowan faithful ending the game. The ball just snuck past two defenders and Calista Burke. One of the defenders was put into the game earlier after Julianna Giordano went with an injury.
“Julianna is the backbone of our defense,” Leacott said.
With this loss, it is unknown whether the team will make the regional tournament, but if they do get the opportunity to play Leacott knows what he wants the team to work on if the opportunity does arise.
“Just being a little more cohesive,” Leacott said. “When we get individual we are not very good, when we can move the ball and run hard off the ball we are very good. You can see it when we are pinging it around and then there are times when we are trying to take on six people and you cannot do that against good teams, all you are playing is good teams at this point.”
If this is the end of the season for the team, then it will be the end for many key contributors with starters, Burke, Meghan Kryjer, Manon Bada, Jillian Jankowski, and Olivia Falicki all set to graduate.
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