The Rowan women’s soccer team trailed early in their game against Drew. After trailing only a couple of times last season, the team fell behind early. Starting forward for Drew, Alexa Krause was able to use her speed to get through Julianna Giordano, Manon Bada, and Cali Sloan to take an early 1-0 lead.

Despite falling down early, Rowan secured a 4-2 win, with Mackenzie Clement recording a great hat trick. Rallying back from a deficit could help the team later in the season, especially when going up against stronger competition.

“We did not face much adversity last year,” Clement said. “I think this year, having it so early on, is really good for our team morale. It allows us to pick ourselves up and stay in the game when we are down.”

Clement’s first goal, which tied up the game, came in the middle of the first half when she was able to finish a ball on a crisp pass.

“I am pretty sure it was [Olivia Giordano]. She played a really good ball across,” Clement said. “I just took my time and placed it where I wanted to put us on the board.”

Simone Pacetti scored the goal that gave Rowan the lead. The goal was assisted by Julianna and Olivia Giordano. This was Pacetti’s second goal of the season.

“I think my adrenaline was so high when I got the ball that I blacked out,” Pacetti said. “All I was thinking was, ‘You gotta keep going,’ and then I found myself in front of the 18 and was just hoping for the best at that point.”

So far this season, the substitutions have contributed significantly to the team. The two standouts on the offensive end have been Angela Oliveto and Pacetti.

“Change the game,” Pacetti said. “[Coach Leacott] doesn’t look at us as subs; he looks at us like game changers. We need to go in, elevate, and make a difference. Everyone off the bench does a good job of coming in and changing the game for the better.”

Clement’s other two goals were scored on penalty kicks (PKs). These were her fourth and fifth goals scored on PKs this season. Her mindset has been strong when it comes to those PKs.

“Stepping up, I really just take my time,” Clement said. “I put positive vibes out there, telling myself, ‘You can do this,’ and things like that. After that, whatever happens, happens.”

The fouls that led to the penalty kicks were drawn by Ava Morales and Lianna SanFelice. The foul on SanFelice was particularly obvious, as the goalkeeper came out of goal and basically rolled into SanFelice. Drawing those fouls is something head coach Scott Leacott has been pleased to see.

“In the last few years, we’ve probably missed at least five penalty kicks,” Leacott said. “I think the one good thing this year is we’ve been drawing the fouls. They’ve been pretty egregious.”

The other goal scored by Drew came once again from Krause. The team was missing starting defender Meghan Kryjer, but Elaina Corson did an admirable job filling in for her.

“I thought she did great,” Leacott said. “They weren’t under a ton of pressure; we just let that kid get loose twice. We kept backing off of her. We didn’t challenge her. Even though [Corson] is a junior, she hasn’t had a ton of playing time, so there’s a little bit of inexperience.”

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