Box Score Photo by: Staci Williams
WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College women's soccer team after coming off of a heartbreaking loss to the Panthers of Chapman University played probably their best game all season against the Bulldogs of the University of Redlands.
The last time these two teams met, Redlands prevailed 8-0, but the Poets have shown vast improvement and look to become the spoiler in the conference as they look to get back into the SCIAC race.
Whittier who controlled the tempo of the game on both sides of the field showed that they were the aggressor as they gave Redlands a scare in this morning's game that ended in a 1-0 win for the Bulldogs.
The Poets for the game outshot the Bulldogs 9-8 and stayed with Redlands in the entire first half despite only taking two shots but performed strongly on the defensive side of the ball thanks to the back line of Hannah Cooley, Emily Lujan, and Stephanie Bergstrom who only allowed three shots in the first half allowing Whittier to enter intermission knotted up at 0-0.
Coming out of the break, Whittier began picking up the tempo and the offensive prowess and for a majority of the game, Whittier was deep in Bulldog territory pressuring Bulldog goalkeeper Linzey Smith.
In the second half, Whittier had two early corner kick opportunities in the 51st minute, but on the back end, freshman Madison Shipherd who collected six shots total for the game missed wide and had another shot blocked, allowing Redlands to breathe a sigh of relief.
Whittier for the day had 10 corner kick opportunities compared to Redlands 1 and that paid big dividends late in the game as Whittier continued to pressure the ball, while getting numerous scoring opportunities.
It was physical game from both sides as Whittier was tagged with two yellow cards, but late in the game, Redlands received an unassisted goal by Fionna Connelly who in the 74th minute drew out Poet goalkeeper Shanna Falch. Connelly then dribbled around Falch and found the back part of the goal for the lone goal of the game.
Falch had yet another strong game in goal as she totaled five very difficult saves that helped keep Whittier in the game.
In the final five minutes, Whittier took four shots trying to score the equalizer, but they were unable to find the back of the goal allowing Redlands to claim the 1-0 victory.
Whittier returns to the field as they travel to take on the Athena's of Claremont-M-S, Wednesday, October 19 beginning at 7pm.
