By Kory Vergets
Saturday the UMass Boston women’s soccer team hosted the Trailblazers of Massachusetts College of Arts in their 2003 season home opener. Despite the sea of yellow jerseys that flooded the Mass. College bench the Beacons did not capsize. Each Beacon player saw ninety minutes of action in this contest, as there were no uniformed substitutes on the Beacon bench, while the Trailblazers had enough players to field two full teams. As anticipated, this was a factor late in the second half. Despite Mass. Art’s advantage of shear numbers the first half was a scoreless balance of power.
The Trailblazers were held scoreless for more than fifty-four minutes, mainly due to the superb defense of the Beacons. Sophomore goalkeeper Elizabeth Erlandson made several key saves throughout the contest, nine in total. Showing her hops at 12:40 she knocked a sharp shot up and out over the crossbar. Initially, her punts were shaky and nervous looking, but as comfort came she began to boom them past midfield. The Beacon’s defensive package also included a number of possession-changing headers by freshman Kristy Brooks and the protective instinct and hustle of two-time letter-winning senior Eun-Joo Sohn, a Cambridge native.
Junior midfielder Kristen Smoyer changed one of the two zeros on the scoreboard at 53:16 of the second half with an unassisted 15-yard cross-goal shot into the upper right corner of the net. But, only 1 minute later the Trailblazers answered, making it 1-1. At 66:25 Mass. Art’s Michelle Staron of found Kelley Davis for the game winner. The Trailblazers added one more at 67:02 to lock their 3-1 final winning score.
Other noteworthy play goes to the first half hustle and determination of sophomore midfielder Lara Miele. In the second half the Beacons’ defense cleared out a number of playable balls into the Trailblazers’ half of the field, however, there was no power left in the Beacons to light up the opposing teams goal. The Beacons sit at 0-2 on the season. Next, they will visit the battlefield of Eastern Nazarene College at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 9.