ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's soccer team turned in a highly offensive-minded performance on Sunday afternoon as the Mids fired off 28 shots on their way to a 3-2 victory over the VMI Keydets. Coming in with an all-time series advantage of 6-0 over the Keydets (3-2-1), the Mids (5-4-0) overcame an early one-goal deficit with a loud run of three unanswered goals before a late VMI score tightened the final result to 3-2 at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility.
Marlee Heaven (Jr., Rockville, Md.) paced Navy's comeback effort with her second two-goal game of the season as she netted the go-ahead goal in the 67th minute before notching the game-winning tally courtesy of a converted penalty kick in the 82nd.
Lauren Toms (Fr., Fairplay, Md.) was the Mids' first goal scorer of the day as she hammered home a header shot in the 31st minute for her first career goal.
"I thought we got off to another good start," remarked head coach
Carin Gabarra. "We had very good possession, we changed the way we attacked and we got more players involved moving the ball up the field. We did all of those things very well. VMI is a very gritty, hard-working team. They made a goal happen out of nothing and we made some mistakes on defense that we'll need to correct, but overall I was happy with our play and the chances we created. We'll have to improve our efficiency in the final third; putting more shots on frame and converting more of those scoring opportunities into goals. Overall though, I thought we were very good on the attacking and possession side of the ball today.
"We switched our system a bit in the first half because we had the ball a lot, but we didn't necessarily have the right players in the right positions to play that way so we changed that up as time went along and then we went down a goal, so we needed to pick up the urgency to get back into it. I'm proud of the effort that we showed to fight back and tie the game before halftime because that matters. Coming out of the half tied at 1-1, we came out a little bit stronger and more determined. I felt that we created a lot more good chances in the second half and it showed with two more goals."
Navy came out on the attack as in consecutive minutes of play early on the fans at Glenn Warner saw Heaven chest down a cross and drop the ball off to
Mackenzie Morrow (Fr., Jacksonville, N.C.), who volleyed a shot off target in the 11th minute before Morrow fed
Alexa Riddle (Sr., Tomball, Texas) into open space in the 12th minute, though Riddle's one-on-one showdown with VMI's goalkeeper Whitney Tracy was short-circuited as Tracy darted off her line and deflected Riddle's shot wide.
The Mids kept up that early pressure with four more shots, though all of the attempts were off target. Surviving the early barrage of action in their defensive third, the Keydets rallied and broke onto the scoreboard first with a Riley Boucher marker at 23:53.
It took less than eight minutes for Navy to pull even as
Amanda Graziano (Sr., Middlebury, Conn.) swung a deep looping corner kick to the back post where Toms elevated up to meet the ball and powered a header shot into the back of the net at 31:00.
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Natasha Stramrood (Fr., Cypress, Texas) was called up a little over two minutes later when she leaped up in the 34th minute to deny a Sedona Dancu shot on goal. That save helped both teams retire to the locker room at halftime with the score knotted at 1-1.
The vigor that Navy showed in the first half with its 12 shots and four corner kick opportunities was ratcheted up in the second stanza. In just the initial eight minutes of the second half, the Mids turned in three high-percentage looks as Riddle sprinted in with the ball to the end line before whipping a cross to Heaven, that unfortunately was pushed wide in the 49th minute before
Chiara Cosenza (So., Westfield, N.J.) nearly facilitated a Morrow goal two minutes later with a dynamic dribbling effort around three Keydet defenders, though Morrow's shot missed the frame. The pressure by Navy continued with a series of passes from Heaven-to-Morrow-to-Riddle that saw Riddle break in free to the goal, though once again VMI's keeper, Tracy, was active and effective off her line to negate the chance.
Hannah Mulholland (So., Chandler, Ariz.) tried to break the 1-1 tie in the 64th minute when she dribbled into the 18 and ripped a shot towards the goal that rang off the crossbar. That shot was the second of three looks on Sunday that connected with the crossbar as a later attempt by Cosenza in the 81st minute was deflected by Tracy into the stanchion.
Navy's nose for the goal finally paid off in the 67th minute when
Ande Swan (Fr., Sugar Land, Texas) played a ball up from midfield to
Isabella Romano (Jr., Syosset, N.Y.), who calmly collected the pass and found Heaven for the through ball and another one-on-one opportunity. Heaven made sure Tracy's aggressiveness wouldn't pay off as she pocketed her shot into the far corner of the goal mouth at 66:03.
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Heaven matched her two-goal effort from earlier this season versus Sacred Heart in the 82nd minute when she converted the Mids' first penalty kick of the year. The opportunity came about when Riddle out-ran a VMI defender and was taken down from behind in the box.
A corner kick connection by the Keydets' Cadee Hegarty to Isabella Bruzonic at 84:00 tightened the final margin to 3-2.Â
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For the game, Navy out-shot VMI, 28-8 with a 9-4 advantage in shots on goal. The Mids also held a 6-4 edge in corner kicks.
Stramrood finished off her fifth career victory with a pair of saves.
"I'm proud of the chances that we created because they were diverse and came from a variety of different players," said Gabarra. "We're not relying on only one player to score for us and that makes us dangerous. Alexa [Riddle] didn't have a goal today, but she earned the PK for us so she was doing her job and doing it well. We don't want to run our offense through just one player, we want our players and their skills to complement each other on the attack. We're getting goals from many different people. Bella [Romano] stepped in today and was very effective for us. Her work rate created a lot of good chances for us. She's calm and composed with the ball. Mackenzie [Morrow] gave us good minutes and was dangerous on the attack from the midfield for us. I thought Ande [Swan] continues to thwart any thing that teams throw at her. She's very good at solving different looks and schemes that might get thrown at her."
Navy will be rounding out its non-conference slate of action with two more games next week. First up is a home matchup on Thursday night versus Penn at 7 p.m. before heading out on the road for a Sunday 1 p.m. afternoon tilt at Temple.
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