The Plymouth State Woman’s Soccer team dropped their second straight game, 2-3, to non-conference opponent Bowdoin College on Tuesday evening at Panther Field.
The Panthers looked very strong early on in the game as they controlled a lot of the play early against a highly ranked Bowdoin team. However Bowdoin showed why they are the third ranked team in the region scoring the first goal of the match. At 16 minutes of play, Bowdoin Junior Hillary Smith received a pass at the top of the eighteen-yard box and shot the ball into the lower left corner of the goal past Plymouth Freshman goalkeeper, Hayley Quinones. The score stayed 0-1 until 40 minutes when Plymouth Senior Sandra Petlick scored on an incredible goal twenty-five yards out, chipping the ball over Bowdoin keeper, Anna Shapell, catching her out of position and tying the game at one apiece.
However, the tied game was short lived as the Bowdoin offence struck right back. In the next minute, Bowdoin Sophomore Rachael Gordon scored off a deflection in the six-yard-box placing the ball past Quinones into the bottom right corner of the net.
This 1-2 score only lasted three minutes. At 44 minutes the Panthers scored one of the prettiest goals of the season. Plymouth Junior midfielder Cathy Berei dribbled the ball from Plymouth’s 18 yard box past half field and sent a beautiful through-ball on the right side to Petlick, as she calmly placed the ball past Shapell, scoring her second goal of the night, sending the teams tied going into halftime 2-2.
Bowdoin then pretty much dominated the second half of play and could have easily turned the game into a complete blowout, but for the incredible play of Quinones, who at times would make two saves in less than five seconds between them, kept the score deadlocked at 2-2. Quinones finished with twelve saves on the night.
It was in the 84th minute of play that Bowdoin took the lead for good as Bowdoin Sophomore midfielder Cedar Goldman took a corner kick and was credited with the goal as the ball deflected off a Plymouth defender and landed in the bottom left corner of the goal past Quinones making the score 2-3. The Panthers have now dropped to 1-4 on the season and will be traveling to Umass-Boston for their first Little East Conference match on Saturday, September 28 for a 1:00 p.m. start.