Capping off a productive weekend, Stony Brook Women’s Soccer was firing on all cylinders in its 3-0 win over Wagner Sunday afternoon at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium.
Junior forward Manuela Corcho scored her first two goals of the season, leading the charge for Stony Brook. She scored both of her goals in an eight-minute span in the second half, driving past two defenders toward the left side of the goal only to tap the ball in with the right side of her foot for her first goal in the 77th minute. Her second came after she exposed a Wagner defender in a one-on-one battle, changing speeds to trick the defender and scoring on a powerful kick from near the right side of the goal in the 83rd minute.
“I was like, ‘I gotta beat this girl’,” Corcho said. “I just wanted to get past her and I saw the goalie go toward my side [of the goal] and it worked out.”
Freshman midfielder Lea Kalmbach assisted Corcho’s first goal and scored herself. Kalmbach pummeled the team’s first goal of the day into the net on a deflection from 10 yards out. The goal was the freshman’s first as a Seawolf.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Kalmbach said. “The work I’ve put in finally paid off.”
Stony Brook’s three goals were part of the team’s 22 shot offensive onslaught. The Seawolves end the weekend with a total of 49 shot attempts and five goals. In its past two games, the team had more goals than it had scored in its first eight games of the regular season.
“We’ve been working a lot on the attack and we’ve been working on attack third, being patient and finding good opportunities,” head coach Brendan Faherty said. “It’s hard for any team to win two games in a weekend.”
Not only was the team’s offense performing at a high level, the Seawolves’ defense did not fall victim to Wagner’s attack. Stony Brook’s backline consistently rattled the opponent’s offense, never allowing them to get comfortable near the box. The team held Wagner to just four shot attempts in the game and just one in the first half.
“We rotated seven players in our back line over the two games, which is pretty good,” Faherty said. “All of them played very well. We only allowed just one goal on the weekend.”
Stony Brook’s record improves to 3-5-2 and will head back on the road this week when they play Farleigh Dickinson on Thursday at 7 p.m.. The Knights competed in the NCAA Tournament College Cup last fall, losing to Rutgers in the first round.
