The American University women’s soccer team (1-4-3) clinched their first win of the season with a 2-1 finish in an exciting home game matchup against the Army West Point Black Knights (3-5-2).
Both teams came out of the gate firing, with each team making a shot attempt within the first six minutes of the game. Despite falling short on their first attempt, the Eagles remained on the attacking end for much of the first half, earning five corner kicks to Army’s one.
After 43 minutes of gameplay, sophomore forward Alyssa Giroux capitalized on a corner kick by junior midfielder Brooke Steel, sending the ball into the back of the net and boosting American up 1-0 with 1:22 minutes to go in the half.
“I think scoring first definitely put our foot ahead,” Giroux said. “We got to have some fun with it while also creating momentum going into the second half.”
The Black Knights came into the second half looking to shift this momentum and place themselves on the attacking side of the ball. Within five minutes of the half, they evened the score 1-1, putting pressure on the Eagles’ defense. American fought to regain control of the pace and combat Army’s offense.
Fifteen minutes later the Eagles broke away once again to score another goal in the 66th minute. Drawing a free kick outside the box graduate student midfielder Ashley Molz headered the ball to Steel, who then headered the ball into the goal, breaking the tie and restoring American’s lead.
“We just kept our foot on the gas,” Steel said. “We wanted to play our game and not play to them and it worked in our favor today.”
In the final 10 minutes of the game, Army made several plays towards the goal but the Eagles maintained their lead and held the Black Knights to their one goal of the match. Junior goalkeeper Julia Kato ended the match with two saves, facing 11 Army shot attempts, three of which were on goal. American took 10 shots, four of which were on goal.
When asked about maintaining a positive group mindset moving forward, Steel said the team will continue to “fine tune our technical work and make sure we’re technically sound and structurally sound for the next game.”
The Eagles travel to Pennsylvania to take on the Lafayette Leopards Sept. 30 for their next match. Their next home game will be Oct. 11 against Navy.
This article was edited by Penelope Jennings, Delaney Hoke and Abigail Pritchard. Copy editing done by Isabelle Kravis.
