CINCINNATI, Ohio – The Milwaukee women's soccer team cut an early two-goal deficit in half but could not continue the momentum in falling by a final score of 4-2 to Xavier Thursday night at Corcoran Field in the 2024 season opener.
"We are just not playing good enough soccer right now, plain and simple," head coach
Kevin Boyd said. "So on our end, we need to grow a lot, both the newcomers and the returners."
The Panthers (0-1) gave up an early goal in the ninth minute to the Musketeers (1-0), a team coming off a 14-win campaign and an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament last year. They then made the task tougher when conceding a penalty kick at the 14:16 mark.
"There are a number of parts of our game that just aren't showing up right now and it's, to the negative, affecting us and we're letting our opponents dictate way too much," Boyd said. "Our focus right now is just growing as a group and trying to get better in what we do each day."
Down, but not out, the offense started to come around and the defense buckled down before MKE struck back. The goal was a beauty, with
Emily Petring – just minutes after subbing in – finishing off a flick from
Kayla Rollins on a ball in from
Sophia Anuat to make it 2-1 at the 18:51 mark.
Bethany Moser then made impressive saves in the 19
th and 24
th minutes to keep the deficit at one, but Xavier was able to get a big goal just before halftime, putting home a ball that was blocked on the original shot but not cleared cleanly, with the second attempt finding the back of the net at the 43:50 mark.
The Panthers came out of the second-half gates with much more pressure, but the Xavier defense was able to tamp it down, including a nice play by the XU goalkeeper charging out and taking one off the foot of a 1 v 1 chance sprung by Rollins on the breakaway.
The next goal was going to play a huge role either way, and it was the home side that converted, scoring on a give-and-go option that built the lead to three in the 73
rd minute.
Milwaukee got a second goal late, with
Elizabeth Reece chipping a shot over the keeper after
Molly O'Regan had sprung an open teammate for a breakaway chance. The GK disrupted that attempt, but the clearance went right to Reece who finished nicely to close out the scoring in the 4-2 decision in the 84
th minute.
For the game, Xavier finished with advantages of 19-4 in shots, but just 6-3 in shots on goal. That was also the same advantage in the corner kick count, with four different players recording shot attempts for Milwaukee. Moser (first 45 minutes) and
Lilly Hanke (second half) were each credited with one save apiece.
Up next, game two of the regular season takes the Panthers back to Ohio to take on Ohio State next Thursday, set for a 6 p.m. CT start.
