Credit: Seton Hall Women's Soccer
Seton Hall Collapses Defensively to Lehigh in 2-1 Loss
Published: Friday, August 23, 2024
by Victor Gonzalez
The campus of Seton Hall was buzzing with the official move-in of all students taking place this week. This led to a packed house at Owen T. Carroll Field on Thursday night, as students and families watched the Seton Hall Pirates (1-0-1) take on the Lehigh Mountain Hawks (0-1).
Coming into this non-conference matchup, the Pirates were coming off a 0-0 draw to FDU that saw plenty of offensive chances and defensive resiliency for the Pirates, but no reward. Today the Pirates saw an offensive return from their attacks but fell short defensively.
To start off the game, the Pirates controlled much of the possession for the whole first half. The Pirates were able to utilize long balls off free kicks to create back and forth chances in the final third of the field. In the 32nd minute, Brina Micheels had a well-controlled flick to Sophie Liston, who sent in a lobbing through ball that found Tori Angelo one on one with goalkeeper Maggie Ousouljoglou, who was able to make a diving save on Angelo’s shot to keep the game 0-0.
The Lehigh defense in the first half was well organized and were able to keep the
constant Pirate attack at bay, up until the Pirates finally broke through their blockade.
With 6 minutes left in the first half, a long ball found Caroline Lipton on the left
wing who then sent in a low cross into the left side of the box that found a streaking
Natalie Tavana, who then sent a low cross of her own across the box to an unmarked
Nina Davis. She tapped the ball into the back of the net to give the Pirates a 1-0
lead.
That would give the Pirates a 1-0 lead going into the half, putting up 7 shots and
what looked like a well-organized offense and defense. But the story would change
rapidly to start the 2nd half.
Lehigh came out the half looking like a different team offensively. They were more
aggressive on counter attacks, which allowed them to catch the Pirate backline out
of position. These counters paid off early.
Five minutes into the half, Lehigh was able to find the back of the net. A long ball
was sent into the box and ping ponged between Pirate and Mountain Hawk players. The
ball settled in front of Zoe Schutter, who put a great shot near the penalty spot,
and buried it past goalkeeper Avery Strohecker to tie the game up at 1 apiece.
Two minutes later, Lehigh once again found themselves in another golden opportunity to counterattack. Forward Aminah Baruwa was able to dribble and shred through the Pirate backline, starting from the midfield line into the box, showing off her skill and speed. Baruwa found herself in a one-on-one situation with Strohecker and smashed a shot past her into the top right corner, capping off an impressive solo run with a goal.
After conceding two quick goals, the Pirates looked lost and couldn’t put together any action offensively in the final third. With 15 minutes remaining, the Pirates' second-half offensive and defensive woes turned into even more frustration, as Brina Micheels was given a red card after getting tangled up with Corinne Lyght on a counterattack and fouling her after play was stopped.
With a one-player advantage on the pitch, Lehigh put the game away by maintaining possession and parking the bus in the defensive half. But the Pirates would not go down without a fight, creating four big chances on goal inside the box with 10 minutes left. Unfortunately for the Pirates, these chances couldn’t lead to any goals and the Pirates lost 2-1.
The Lehigh Mountain Hawks improved to (1-1) on the season and the Seton Hall Pirates dropped to (1-1-1) on the season. They will now try to flip the script in their next match at Rider on August 25th.
Victor Gonzalez can be reached at victor.gonzalez@student.shu.eduPosted in: sports,