Viking’s Women’s Soccer regains momentum post Mohawk Valley loss
By: Omsalama Ayoub
Staff writer
Hudson Valley Community College’s women’s soccer team won 5-0 against the Erie Community College Kats on Sept. 21 to a supportive, roaring Homecoming crowd.
With a goal scored in the first three minutes of the game by Rebecca Fankhanel, business major, assisted by Brooke Clough, human services student, the game was off to a very promising start for the Vikings.
The dribbling and control of the ball by Clough, was important against the 5-5-0 formation of the Erie team. Clough is a Mountain Valley All-Conference recipient who scored 16 goals and nine assists during her freshman season in the fall of 2018.
The footwork displayed by Jordan Goeddertz, who plays for Erie Community College, gave a redeeming chance for the Kats. However, this was quickly unraveled by conflict among the team.
“We could have remained positive rather than yelling at each other,” said Maya O’Rourke who plays defensive middle or center back for Erie Community College. “Normally [our chemistry] is okay, but today because we were losing and we wanted to win everybody was just pissy with each other and it was [poor].”
At half time the score was 2-0 with a Viking’s lead.
“I thought it was going to be a tough game,” said O’Rourke in recounting the breakage in communication. “We changed formation in the second half and not all of us were on [the same page] to what was going on,” O’Rourke continued. “[Erie sideline] was 100% quieter [ and] after you get scored on 3 times the mood just goes down and there’s little to no motivation left.”
While the Erie Community College team was lagging, Taya Caitlin, criminal justice student, and Morgan Catlin, liberal arts major, performed an assisted steal.
“This is my first fall [as Head Coach] [and] we’re still trying to figure out our [strengths and weaknesses,]”said Kolby Banker, head coach of the Erie Community College. “We’ve been adding different pieces every single week [and] this is our first [contest] where we’ve had 18 players.”
Amber Grabp, goalkeeper for the Kats, made excellent saves in the second half of the game mirroring the attitude that she defended her team’s morale with.
“We wanted to come together as a team during our talk at halftime and be more positive,” said Grabp. “Start from the goalie then up to defense [then] all the way up to offense [because] you have to work as a team to get up to offense.”
Dental hygiene major, Grace Crusak, a player with over seven goals this season, factors the home advantage in the Viking’s win.
“Having the home advantage really gave us that motivation to start out super strong,” Crusak said. “Knowing that [Erie] is ranked 10th in the nation we wanted to win that much more [and] it really helped us with our intensity.”
The Vikings will play Bergen Community College at 1 p.m. on Saturday Sept. 28.