By Hayden Choate
@choatehayden
The Springfield College Women’s soccer team lost to non-conference opponent Brandeis, 4-1 on Saturday afternoon at Brock-Affleck Field.
Makenna Hunt scored just 4:48 into the first half of play to put the Judges up 1-0. Just over five minutes later, Hunt made a crossing pass from the right side to Juliette Carreiro who scored to make it 2-0 Brandeis with just under 35 minutes left in the first half.
“That’s a good team,” Springfield College women’s soccer coach John Gibson said. “We gave the ball away too much in the first half and first 15 minutes and they punished us.
The Pride had just come off an intense battle with Wheaton that ended in a 4-4 tie on Wednesday before taking on the Judges.
Jess Herman added a goal for Brandeis to put Springfield in a 3-0 deficit heading into the half. Gibson said turnovers are what hurt his team the most.
“Disappointed to give the ball away the way we did,” Gibson said.
Lexi Krobath scored for Brandeis from the left side of the field with just over 17 minutes left in the second half to put Brandeis up 4-0. Karly Suppicich finally got Springfield on the board with two minutes to go in the game.
This was the last non-conference game of the season for Springfield who plays host to Clark on Wednesday then they close out the season at home next Saturday against Emerson.
Although the loss is a tough one Gibson saw some positives to bring into next week.
“Yeah that was the scoreline and it isn’t what we wanted. We got some good performances out of some different people going into next week,” Gibson said.
Saturday’s game was also senior day where the Pride honored their six seniors, Kaleigh Dale, Heather Jennato, Alynna Sosa, Maddy Bonavita, Caitlin Normoyle and Bridget O’Connor.
Springfield came into Saturday’s game dealing with some injuries, Gibson used a lot of the depth he has on his roster to rest some players before next week’s matchups.
“We got to play everybody, we got to honor the seniors which was nice unfortunately it wasn’t with a win,” Gibson said. “I think we were able to hopefully get some people healthy for Wednesday.”
With the loss, the Pride are now 6-6-2 on the season and look to move up in the NEWMAC standings in their last two games.
“Intensity, winning tackles, playing the ball quick,” Gibson said about what his team needs to do for Wednesday. “About what it was Wednesday at Wheaton, we played well there so that’s what we’re looking for.”
Normoyle played the first half in goal, while O’Connor played the second. Springfield made 19 substitutions over the course of the game Saturday.
Both Emerson and Clark sit above Springfield in the current NEWMAC standings. Hoping to knock off both teams next week will help the Pride in their hunt for the conference playoffs.
Photo: Hayden Choate