Cortland forward, Makala Gulchess dribbling through players. (Camilo Fredes/Cortland Voice).
After starting off the season with two consecutive wins, the Cortland Women’s soccer team suffered a tough 0-5 loss against the Jamesville-Dewitt Red Rams at home.
Within the first five minutes of the game, everything seemed to be all right for the Tigers. They were keeping possession, passing the ball well and were making cuts on the inside of Jamesville-DeWitt's box.
However, ten minutes into the game, the Red Rams began to press and suffocate the Tigers on Cortland's side of the field.
Then the first goal of the game was shortly scored by the Red Rams senior forward, Tonia Kousmanidis after a quick breakaway with 29:18 left in the first half.
Three minutes later senior midfielder, Sydney Baker made it 0-2 for the Rams; giving them a comfortable lead.
The first half ended with a box score of 0-4 with one other goal from Kousmanidis and then one from senior forward, Grace Dimkopoulos.
At the start of the second half, the Tigers seemed to be more confident and began to get control of the game as they connected their passes and made runs on the outside.
Cortland midfielder, Grace Call getting ready to take a corner kick. (Camilo Fredes/ Cortland Voice).
"We needed some line separation between our back and our midline," said Cortland Head Coach, Ilona Ryon. "We also need more leadership on our backline. Our backline is fairly new. Captains Lillian Quick and Grace Call really stepped up in the back being able to control the ball."
Quick had lots of interceptions and clean tackles during the game, especially in the second half as she was pushed back into the back line.
However, even with the Tigers controlling the game in the second half, They were still having difficulty getting through the Ram's back line.
The Tigers only had a total of two shots on goal throughout the game, with both of them coming from senior midfielder, Tori Cruz.
Half way through the second half and with the Tigers becoming desperate to connect up top; the Rams were able to form a quick breakaway, leaving freshman forward, Megan Baker one-on-one against Cortland's senior goalkeeper Marissa Gilmore to make it 0-5.
Cortland goalkeeper, Marissa Gilmore getting ready to punt the ball away after making a save. (Camilo Fredes/Cortland Voice).
Even with five goals scored, Gilmore had an incredible game, having a total of 10 saves. With most of them being one-on-one.
With it only being the beginning of the season Coach Ryon stated that there are still things to improve on.
"We need to have better first touches and play quicker to our feet," said Ryon. "We can definitely take some things from this game and learn from it. We need to think how confidently we played on that second half and we need to start every game like that."
The Tigers are now 2-1 and will be traveling to to face Liverpool on Saturday, September 7th at 10 a.m. in hopes to turn this loss around.
