GOCOWOSO Falls Prey

On November 3^rd, the Scots’ women’s soccer hosted Roger Williams’ Hawks on Gordon’s campus for the CCC final face-off.  Held at a tie for 76 minutes, the game suddenly turned, much to the detriment of Gordon’s fans. The Hawks swept up the Scots for a loss of 1-0. 

With an overwhelming record of 17-2 and the title of the No. 1 seed, the Scots were the expected winners for the regional finals.  When the Hawks won the match, they earned themselves the seat for the NCAA tournament, entering with a record of 12-6-3.  The season was over for GOCOWOSO. 

The first half was evenly matched, each team making shots on goal and equally defending their end of the field. It wasn’t until after halftime that the numbers changed. Though a few solid shots were made by the Scots’ forwards, the fired shots were defended by Hawks’ goalie, Stephanie Jaques ’14.  The scoreboard remained empty until Roger William’s Kristen Tetreault ’15 brought the silence to an end.

What brought down the Scots’ strong stride?  While the halftime break brought new energy and bite to the visiting team’s play, the Scots’ performance dipped.  So now the question is, what occurred in the Scots’ halftime huddle?

Captain Rachel Ashley ’13 said that the pregame rituals were carried out as usual: team dinner the night before, locker room worship songs and pump-up speech, conducted by goalie, Kari Christensen ’14.  Head coach Marc Whitehouse made the speech in the halftime huddle. 

“I try not to make it anything special,” said Coach Whitehouse about the halftime speech. “It’s just another big game. I don’t want my girls to shoot too high or too low.”

Roger William’s head coach, Tim Moody, said that they went into the second half knowing that they had the advantage. “Out of the two teams we kept the ball better, we possessed the ball better. We needed to just keep doing what we were doing.” 

In Coach Moody’s mind, they had already won the game at halftime.

“I was very pleased with our first 45 minutes,” said Moody. “We were playing into the wind on the first half, the second half we’d have more chances.”

And it seemed they did.

“RWU came out strong and we had the wind in our faces,” said Ashley.

A break in Gordon’s defense and the factor of a strong wind allowed RWU to score the game-winning goal, earning them their third consecutive CCC championship title.

“Unfortunately, there is no mercy in soccer,” said Ashley, “and one error can change everything.”

Though the Scots did not win the championship, Coach Whitehouse was not discouraged.

“I’m really proud of my kids,” said Coach Whitehouse, “they handled it very well.  Roger Williams saw how we handled that stuff - inviting them to postseason snacks and such. They leave saying, ‘Man these guys are classy people,’ and we are.  We played it out in our wins and losses throughout the season and especially in that loss.”

In addition to the women’s soccer, Gordon sent two other teams to the playoffs for the fall 2012 season. Men’s soccer made it to the semifinals in Newport R.I. where they faced the Salve Regina University’s Seahawks.  The Seahawks progressed to the finals with a win of 2-1 against Gordon. 

Though the Scots lost the game, they put up quite a fight.  Freshman defender Dalton Weaner ’16 scored the only goal for Gordon, and also his first collegiate goal, off a free kick made by midfielder Andy Guthrie ’15 in the second half of the match.

The Scots also sent the women’s field hockey to North Field, home of the Endicott Gulls, to compete in the semifinals.  This was the second consecutive year that the Scots faced the Gulls for the semifinals in field hockey and history proved to repeat itself. The Gulls won the game with a final score of 2-1, after a brutal overtime.