Women Drop Opener 4-1 to Waldorf
William Penn Women’s Athletics
Forest City–The Statesmen women’s soccer squad was fairly even on the stat sheet, but unfortunately it did not translate into a win as WPU lost its season opener 4-1 to Waldorf in non-conference play Saturday.
William Penn (0-1) was outshot just 15-13 and 9-7 in the first half, but trailed 2-0 at intermission via Warrior scores in the second and 29th minutes.
The deficit was cut in half early in the second stanza when Savannah Padilla (Fr., Mesa, Ariz., Sociology) made her collegiate debut a good one with an unassisted goal at the 54:26 mark.
Waldorf (1-0) put the contest out of reach in the final minutes, however, by scoring in the 80th and 90th minutes.
Alyce Correia (Fr., Perth, Australia, Elementary Education) also had a successful start to her college career, matching Padilla for the team high with three shots. Padilla topped all WPU players with two attempts on goal. Silvia Munoz (So., Paramount, Calif., Elementary Education) had multiple shots (two) as well.
Brenay Fonseca (Jr., San Bernardino, Calif., Physical Education) was saddled with the loss, giving up two first-half goals against four saves. Kayla Benoit (Fr., St. Louis, Mo., Business Management) also allowed a pair of goals with one stop.
“This is obviously not the result we wanted to start the campaign, but we did get the desired effort,” Head Coach Willie McGowan said. “We created a number of good chances and were in the right positions to score, but could not find that finish we craved.”
“Defensively, we actually looked quite sharp and did not give Waldorf any real chances,” McGowan added. “We gave up too much space behind us and made simple errors, which led to our downfall today.”
“With a few tweaks to our organization of the defense, I think we will be fine,” McGowan said. “It will take some time to grow as a team, but I am satisfied with the effort and with a lot of what I saw. We will stay positive and prepare for our next opponent.”
Next: William Penn travels to Sioux City Wednesday to face Briar Cliff in a non-conference contest at 4 p.m.
