Junior goalkeeper Faith Hutchins scored her first clean sheet of the year in the 0-0 draw with the Crusaders. PHOTO CREDIT: gorhody.com
Two second half goals were enough to see URI women’s soccer come back from an early deficit and fight to a 2-2 tie vs. Quinnipiac on Sunday, just days after settling for a scoreless tie vs. Holy Cross in their final two games of non-conference play.
Coming off of their first victory of the season vs. the University of Vermont, Rhody was looking to continue their winning form as they returned home vs. Holy Cross. The Rams outshot the Crusaders 10-5, but defense told the story on Thursday night in what was an extremely physical game, as neither team was able to find the breakthrough through 90 minutes.
A major turning point came in the 77th minute, as Holy Cross were awarded a penalty kick following an intense spell of attacking pressure from Rhode Island. Katie Quinn stepped up with a golden chance to give the Crusaders the lead on the road with only 13 minutes remaining, but Faith Hutchins was more than up to the challenge, blocking Quinn’s effort for her second penalty save of the season.
“I’ve learned to read players, where they stand, where they look and everything,” Hutchins said. “Honestly, when the play was called, I knew I had to save the ball, because if I didn’t, it was gonna be a struggle to get back in it with how we were playing.”
On the other end of the field, Crusaders goalkeeper Olivia Dublin turned away all five shots on goal from Rhode Island to preserve the tie.
27 fouls were committed in total as the game went on, with Holy Cross committing 14 fouls to URI’s 13. Each team picked up two yellow cards during the game as a result.
Head Coach Megan Jessee was unhappy that her team was not able to pick up a better result at home against a Holy Cross team who was still winless on the season.
“There’s just a disappointment that we didn’t get a win out of this game, we’re too good to not get a win or result in this game,” Jessee said.
URI returned home just three days later vs Quinnipiac, still in search of their first home win. It was a nightmare start for the Rams, as Paige Laberge opened the scoring for Quinnipiac just two minutes in. The Bobcats quickly doubled their advantage, as Faith Hutchins saved another shot from LaBerge, but Rebecca Cooke put away the rebound to give the Bobcats a 2-0 lead inside twelve minutes.
Quinnipiac entered the halftime break with the 2-0 advantage, but URI wasn’t done just yet. With only seven minutes gone by in the second half, Francesca Highton found the back of the net off of Hope Santinello’s cross for her first career goal to make it 2-1. Just under 3 minutes later, Brooke Cavino tapped home the equalizer for the Rams to tie the game at two.
Cavino felt the team’s mentality going into halftime played a major role in their second half comeback effort.
“Play for each other and win, play each other and score, [the mentality] was just to leave everything on the field.” Cavino said.
Despite the quick start to the second half, neither team was able to find the back of the net for the remainder of the game, and URI ultimately settled for their third tie of the season, and their second consecutive tie at home.
Jessee spoke on the importance of the second half performance going into conference play.
“That second half is what we’re capable of playing; if we show up like that for all 90 minutes, I think we would’ve walked out of here with a win,” Jessee said. “I think it’s a positive to end where we did, I think that is our best soccer that we’ve played yet.”
Jessee’s team will look to continue to build off of the positives as they begin Atlantic-10 conference play this Thursday, traveling to Duquesne.