ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Faced with opening Patriot League play against the defending conference champions, the Navy women's soccer team showcased a well-rounded brand of deep, team soccer on Saturday and came away with a 3-1 victory over Boston University at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility. The Mids (8-3, 1-0 PL) leaned on their defense in the first half before unleashing a trio of dynamic strikes in the second half to turn a scoreless contest into a 3-1 win versus the Terriers (3-4-2, 0-1 PL).
Natasha Stramrood (So., Cypress, Texas) led Navy's defensive effort with six saves in goal, while the trio of
Helen Bonner (Fr., McLean, Va.),
Marlee Heaven (Sr., Rockville, Md.) and
Jessica Black (Fr., Cedaredge, Colo.) all sniped in goals over a 19-minute span of play in the second half.
"It's great to start off Patriot League play with a win, especially at home against an extremely talented and storied program like Boston," remarked head coach
Carin Gabarra. "We're thrilled with the result, but we had some holes out that that resulted in chances for BU that we'll have to work on. Our finishing was very good today, those were three tremendous goals; we're really proud of those efforts by Helen, Marlee and Jess.
"We'll need to continue building on the cohesion of our possession and improving some of our attacking during the flow of the game. I was happy to see a lot of different players see action today. They may not been out there for a ton of minutes, but they were definitely meaningful for what we're trying to do. Those fresh legs helped us slow down a talented team that had a good surge at the end. This was a great team effort that'll benefit us in the long run."
The visitors from Boston controlled the majority of the early action as Olivia Avellar and Helene Tyburczy put shots on goal within the first six minutes of play on Saturday afternoon. Stramrood was up to the task and corralled both attempts. After three Navy shots went wayward off frame,
Kayana Adlam (So., Orlando, Fla.) had the Mids' first strong look as she spun off her defender at the top of the 18 and ripped a low line drive shot that forced BU's goalkeeper Susan Shobeiri to dive and deflect the shot away off the near post.
Stramrood continued to bolster her team's effort with her third save of the half in the 27th minute when she turned aside a Giulianna Gianino shot on goal.
The play of the first half came in the 40th minute. On the receiving end of a bounding ball off of a corner kick, Boston's Samantha Aronson one-timed a shot that had eyes for the top right corner, but the duo of Stramrood and
Lizzie Emerson (So., Houston, Texas) had different plans as Stramrood got a finger tip on the ball and Emerson denied the shot with her body. On the ensuing loose ball, Stramrood grabbed a dangerous cross to keep it a 0-0 contest.
Coming out of the locker room scoreless, the fans at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility had little inkling of the offensive explosion that lied ahead in the final 45 minutes. It didn't take long as Navy darted into the lead at 52:06 when Bonner took a Cosenza square pass and dribbled in from 40 yards out with ease before unleashing a missile from outside the box into the far upper-90.
The Mids' lead didn't age well as just over five minutes later, Olivia Avellar drew the Terriers back even at 57:47 with a goal of her own.
The scoreboard operator stayed busy courtesy of a Heaven goal only 5:09 later at 62:56. The dynamic senior striker netted her seventh score of the year with a blistering free kick that swung around BU's wall of defenders and into the back of the net.
Playing in her first Patriot League contest, Black put the icing on the Navy victory with a quick strike off a Bonner throw-in at 70:58. The freshman connection saw Black receive the pass from Bonner take one step away from her defender and without hesitating rip a right-footed shot into the far upper-90 to give the Mids a 3-1 lead.
"At halftime, we told our players to take more shots and take more chances," commented Gabarra. "We were trying to play people at the top of the box and make things happen in the attacking third. We have players that can strike a ball so we encouraged them to take those shots and to do it quickly. We wanted to test their goalkeeper and their backline a little more."
Trailing by a pair of goals, the defending league champions went down swinging with back-to-back shots on goals by Gianino and Tyburczy in the 76th and 77th minutes of play. Stramrood kept up her high level of play and made those stops for her fifth and sixth saves of the game.
Navy's fresh legs and suffocating defense held BU to just one off-target attempt for the final 13 minutes of play to seal the victory.
For the game, Boston out-shot Navy, 14-10 with an 8-4 advantage in shots on goal. The visiting Terriers also held a slight 5-4 edge in corner kicks.
Stramrood was credited with six saves as she improved her year-long save percentage to 83 percent.
"We don't have one player that's carrying us," said Gabarra in closing. "We have a lot of players stepping up and sharing in our effort. Regardless of the total minutes of game action, everyone is doing their job and improving our output as a team. They're helping us keep up our level of play without a drop off; that's not an easy task. We're proud of everybody. Jessica and Helen had a great day, two goals by freshman in the conference opener is really great."
Navy will head out on the road for its next Patriot League tilt as a meeting with Colgate in Hamilton, N.Y. lies ahead next Friday starting at 5 p.m.
