In the first minute of the Stony Brook Women’s Soccer game against Fairleigh Dickinson, senior forward Raven Edwards was already darting up the field, positioning herself to score. Junior midfielder Christen Cahill connected a beautiful pass up field to the charging Edwards who connected for a goal on the right side of the net. The goal put her team up 1-0, but it did not last.
“‘CC (Cahill) did a great job of finding the open space from behind and Raven did a great job of scoring the goal,” head coach Brendan Faherty said. “I’m actually disappointed we didn’t look to do that more often on Raven’s side.”
In the next 20 minutes, the Seawolves allowed goals from junior midfielder Dara Battistoni and a successful penalty kick from sophomore midfielder Jessi Reinhardt. Stony Brook fell, 2-1, to the Knights in Teaneck, New Jersey on Thursday, dropping the team’s overall record to 3-6-2.
“I think we created enough chances,” Faherty said. “We just have to be able to finish them and tonight we did not finish our chances.”
The Seawolves outshot the Knights 17-9 and continued to apply pressure to the opposing defense into the second half. They fired 12 unsuccessful shots on goal but never connected for a second goal.
In the final play of the game, sophomore forward Julie Johnstonbaugh saw an open look at the goal that would have sent the game into overtime.
But Fairleigh Dickinson’s goalkeeper charged Johnstonbaugh and the ball sailed over the net, ending the Seawolves’ chance of a comeback.
“It was a nutshell of what the entire game was like,” Faherty said. “We didn’t let the goalkeeper get any saves. We kept hitting the ball wide.”
Stony Brook’s offense was its best defense. After Fairleigh Dickinson scored two goals in the first half, Stony Brook responded by controlling the pace of the game the rest of the way. This made it difficult for the the Knights to create chances and increase its lead.
Junior Shannon Robinson started at goalkeeper for the Seawolves over sophomore goalkeeper Cara Gallagher, who has an 85 percent save percentage, while Robinson’s save percentage is 66 percent. The position is currently on a game-to-game basis, according to Faherty.
Stony Brook will begin its conference schedule this Thursday when the team heads north to play Albany, the defending conference champions, at 7 p.m..