BETHLEHEM, Pa. – In a theme that has shown up throughout the first halfway of the Patriot League schedule for the Navy women's soccer team, second-half goals played a deciding factor in the Mids' 2-0 lost to the Lehigh Mountain Hawks on Friday. Tied 0-0 through 78 minutes, the Mountain Hawks (5-5-1, 3-2 PL) netted a pair of goals in the final 12 minutes to knock off the Midshipmen (5-5-3, 2-3 PL) at the Ulrich Sports Complex.
 
Of the 11 combined goals scored by Navy and its opponents over the first five conference games, eight have now occurred in the second half of play with six coming in the final 20 minutes of action.
 
"This is a cruel game; we hit two posts in the first half and really played well in the second half, but they got two clean looks late and made them both count," remarked head coach Carin Gabarra. "I felt that we had more chances throughout the game, but we didn't convert when we needed to. The effort was good all game, but we rushed a few times on offense and lost an assignment on defense. It's always hard to play on the road and especially here where it's a slower turf that makes movement and crispness more difficult."
 
The action in the initial 10 minutes of the first half saw both teams take aim on the goal as Alexa Riddle (So., Tomball, Texas) had the first look in the fifth minute after intercepting a pass deep in Lehigh's defensive third and dribbling around the Mountain Hawks' goalkeeper Maggie Ousouljoglou. With her eye on the goal, Riddle's shot was deflected late by a Lehigh defender and rang off the post. Lehigh's first and only shot on goal of the first half was a Ryelle Shuey header attempt to the back post in the seventh minute. Navy's Mattie Gallagher (Jr., Gilbertsville, Pa.) read the play from the start and easily closed out to the back post for the save.
 
The game continued for 16-plus minutes without a shot before the Mids' plan for a goal were once again foiled by the post as Marlee Heaven (Fr., Bethesda, Md.) flicked a Riddle cross over Ousouljoglou towards the far side of the net, but ricocheted off the post in the 24th minute.
 
Each team took one shot over the next 12 minutes with Lehigh's Alex Odle putting a shot high over the goal before Kat Healey (Jr., King George, Va.) gathered a loose ball and ripped a shot that tailed away wide left.
 
Coming out of the locker room at halftime tied 0-0, the Mids immediately began the hunt for the game's first score. The team's second shot in the opening 10 minutes was especially dangerous as Riddle dribbled up the end line and fed Jenna Daunt (Jr., Haymarket, Va.) inside the six-yard box. Daunt quickly met the pass with a one-timer shot that skipped just wide of the net.
 
Mimi Abusham (Fr., Los Alamitos, Calif.) was next up for Navy as she received a chested pass from Caitlin Doran (Sr., Queens, N.Y.) on the outer edge of the 18-yard box, spun her defender and put a well-struck shot towards the lower left corner. Unfortunately for the Mids, Ousouljoglou dove and covered up the shot to keep it a 0-0 game in the 71st minute.
 
Less than eight minutes after that Abusham attempt, the Mountain Hawks recorded their first shot on goal of the half as Mattie Murphy snuck in behind the Mids' back line and flicked in a looping cross to give Lehigh the 1-0 lead at 78:45.
 
Trailing by a goal, Navy tried to mount a comeback and saw a Heaven shot get poked away in the 80th minute before Katie Herrmann's (Jr., Charlotte, N.C.) re-direct of a Healey corner kick found the side netting in the 84th.
 
With the Mids pressing up in the attacking third looking for a potential game-tying goal, the Mountain Hawks took advantage of that and played an outlet pass ahead to Corinne Lyght, who dribbled in one-on-one and placed a hard-hit shot into the back of the net at 84:33.
 
For the game, both teams were credited with eight shots, though Navy held a slight 4-3 edge in shots on goal. The visitors also posted the same margin in corner kicks over Lehigh, 4-3.
 
"The stakes over these final three weeks have just gotten even higher," said Gabarra in closing. "We can't take anything for granted. We have a busy week coming up with two league games so we have to begin focusing on that American game on Wednesday."
 
Navy will be back in action at home on Wednesday evening with a 7 p.m. league tilt versus American at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility.