SEAN MCGRATH
Sport’s Editor
Almost at opposite corners of the state, the Fredonia Blue Devils women’s soccer team traveled eight hours for a two-day weekend trip to Plattsburgh and Potsdam, earning a 1-0 win against the Plattsburgh Cardinals on Friday and suffering a 2-0 loss against the Potsdam Bears on Saturday.
The Blue Devils wouldn’t let the bus ride deter their hopes to take a win out of the trip, entering a match that was crucial to the SUNYAC standings, with both Fredonia and Plattsburgh standing at an equal 2-2-1 record in the league.
Sophomore Alexis Moreland scored the match’s lone goal only 1:09 into the first half, off of a cross from senior Kristie Kleine that Moreland just tipped over the Plattsburgh keeper’s head.
But that would be all the scoring that would come out of this match.
Junior keeper Lindsey Forness made six stops in net to preserve the lead and earn her fourth clean sheet of the season in the win. This was, despite the victory, a massive shot count of 19-10 in favor of Plattsburgh.
The win proved crucial to the SUNYAC rankings, as Fredonia grew to 3-2-1 and pushed Plattsburgh to 2-3-1 which vaulted Fredonia into the third spot and pushes the Cardinals into the eighth spot in the standings.
Turning their attention to Saturday’s match, the women took on the 0-6 in SUNYAC Potsdam Bears, but unfortunately fell victim to a hard fought Potsdam offense in a 2-0 loss.
Potsdam scored just under a minute and a half into the match, earning an early lead.
After that, Fredonia gained some feet, but fell victim to two shots pinged off of the goalpost, a post-shot that ringed off the net in the 23rd minute and a crossbar shot that came in the 76th minute.
Despite a massive barrage of shots, that read 27-5 in favor of the Blue Devils, Fredonia couldn’t manage to find the back of the net.
Potsdam added to their lead in the 80th minute, when a Potsdam penalty kick added the near-bookend goal to finish the match.
Forness managed only one stop against the Bears.
As a result of the weekend’s events, the ladies stand at 3-3-1 in SUNYAC and 6-7-1 overall going into this weekend’s match against the Oneonta Red Dragons and New Paltz Hawks to wrap up SUNYAC play. The women will need as many points as they can grab, as they still hold on to the third place spot.
They take to the home pitch on Friday at 3 p.m. against the Oneonta Red Dragons and Saturday at 1 p.m. for the match against New Paltz.