The Eagles defeated the Towson Tigers 4-0 on Oct. 18 at Jacobs Field, outshooting the opponent 30 to two.
“I think we weren’t anywhere as sharp as we wanted it to be in terms of final skill execution,” head coach Steve Jennings said. “We obviously had a great deal of possession and opportunities for shots, but I didn’t think that we were really good at shot selection and efficiency on offense until the middle of the second half.”
The Eagles (8-4-0,4-0-0 PL) were by far the more aggressive team Friday. However, stellar defense by Towson (1-12-0,0-3-0 CAA) , especially by junior goalkeeper Brittany Varacallo who tallied 9 total saves, kept the score close.
Despite occupying the Tigers territory for most of the game, AU did not score until a penalty stroke by senior forward Alex McMackin in the 30th minute of the game banked into the corner pocket of the goal.
AU would continue to press Towson for the remainder of the second half. However kick saves by Varacallo and four unsuccessful penalty corners led The Eagles into the second half up by just one.
The second half would yield similar results for the Eagles until an unassisted strike by freshman forward Natalie Konerth, just under the 60th minute, set off a scoring effort that included three points in just 12 minutes of play.
“We had more urgency and the mentality of wanting to step up and showcase our skills in the second half. It was good to see that internal drive but I think it took us too long to get there, in the end it’s just a lesson that our team needs to learn and get better in,” Jennings said.
Junior midfielder Grace Wilson would tally another goal just two minutes after Konerth’s on a sweeping penalty corner shot which was assisted by senior midfielder Shelly Montgomery.
Towson persevered well into the second half and brought the ball deep into AU territory multiple times. They failed however to get a single shot off in the second period creating an easy afternoon for Eagles senior goalkeeper Stephanie Burry and later sophomore goalkeeper Kate McBeath.
The final goal on the evening came by junior forward Kati Rothenhoefer who drove down the left side of Towson’s goal unassisted and fired the ball into the lower part of the net.
AU hosts No .2 University of Connecticut on Oct. 20 at Jacobs Field and will look to apply lessons learned from their close loss to No. 1 ranked Maryland last week in this upcoming matchup.
“I think it’s always helpful when you play the best team in the country and those are the games we always try to have on our schedule, as many top teams as possible,” Jennings said. “I think going at that tempo and pace and going against that skill level has taught us a lot. We will see just how much on Sunday against Connecticut.”
