Kalamazoo Defeats League-Leading Alma College by 1-0 Score
September 14, 2005
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Kalamazoo Defeats League-Leading Alma College by 1-0 Score September 14, 2005 |
The Kalamazoo College women's soccer team defeated the league-leading Alma College Scots at home on Wednesday by a 1-0 score. Coming into the game, Alma was undefeated (3-0-1 overall, 2-0 MIAA) and tied for first place in the MIAA standings. The 1-0 Hornet win gives Kalamazoo an overall record of 2-2-1 for the year (1-1 MIAA), and the team will travel next to MIAA opponent Olivet College on Saturday 9/17 at home (12:00noon).
Against Alma, the Hornets began the game slowly, playing a haphazard, pinball-like game during the first 10-15 minutes. While the team struggled to find a rhythm, Alma put a great deal of pressure on Kalamazoo's defense, and sophomore goalkeeper Monisha Berkowski was forced to make 2 key early-game saves. About 15 minutes into the game, however, K finally settled into an attractive, 1- and 2-touch passing game and took control of the game's possession for the rest of the half. Despite being out-shot by Alma in the first half (9-6), Kalamazoo actually had more scoring opportunities off some great service from the flanks; unfortunately, these chances didn't result in actual shots, as the team had trouble getting someone on the end of the ball. Although they dominated the final 30 minutes of the first half, the Hornets were unable to find the back of the net, and the two teams entered halftime deadlocked at 0-0.
In the second half, Kalamazoo wasted no time getting the ball into Alma's defensive end of the field, and the team finally earned the game-winner 7 minutes into the period. The Hornets won possession of the ball around midfield, and junior midfielder Macy Lepper turned and played a low, flighted through ball into the top of the 18-yard-box for freshman forward Sarah Arnosky. Arnosky beat her defender in the footrace to the ball, and then slotted a very composed shot into the lower right corner of the goal past Alma's onrushing goalkeeper to earn her first-ever collegiate goal.
Within 10 minutes of scoring, Kalamazoo began to lose a bit of momentum--a turn of events that was aided by a couple of questionable calls by the official. It began when K was awarded a free kick about 35-40 yards away from Alma's goal. Almost the entire Hornet squad pushed up into the Scot's 18-yard-box for the free kick service, with just one lone K defender remaining at the half to watch a stray Alma forward. Suddenly, about 30-40 seconds after the initial call was made, the official suddenly changed his mind and gave Alma the ball. Alma hit a quick restart, playing a long ball into K's end before the team could drop back, which created a near-breakaway situation for Alma. Within the next 10 minutes, the official called 6 straight fouls against the Hornets, and even more shockingly handed out 3 yellow cards to different Kalamazoo players for seemingly innocent fouls. According to Head Coach Laura Passage, "the officiating in the second half was pretty bizarre--some of the worst I have ever seen. Our team needs to learn to do a better job of dealing with these sorts of things, however; we can't ever control bad officiating, and we need to learn to stay more composed in those situations."
The final 10 minutes of play were extremely back and forth between the two teams, as Alma pushed to earn an equalizer and Kalamazoo worked hard to preserve its lead. Eventually the final seconds ticked off the clock, and the game ended with the score at 1-0 in K's favor... a nice result for the 200+ Hornet freshmen who attended the game as a part of this week's First-Year Orientation events (a special "thanks!" goes out to Papa John's for providing the free pizza for the new Class of K'09!).
For the day, Berkowski posted 6 saves off Alma's 16 shots (6 shots on goal). Overall, Kalamazoo was outshot by a slim 16-10 margin (6-5 shots on goal).