It was not that Loyola looked bad Friday night. It’s just that William and Mary looked that good.
Sophomore midfielder Mallory Schaffer scored two goals and connected on two assists while fellow sophomore Cortlyn Bristol also knocked in two goals en route to the College’s 5-0 victory over Loyola Friday at Martin Family Stadium at Albert Daly field.
“I thought we moved the ball quite well in the first half,” Head Coach John Daly said. “The second half we finished better. I thought our passes into the box, which is the danger area, were better and we finished them off.”
The first goal came in the 36th minute, as Schaffer pushed a pass from freshman forward Audrey Barry past the Loyola keeper into the right corner of the net for her first goal of the season.
Schaffer would be on the receiving end once again in the 81st minute, after senior midfielder Emily DeNardis beat her defender down the right side. DeNardis crossed the ball to Schaffer, who went into a slide and punched the ball just inside the left post for her second goal of the night.
“Mallory didn’t play well versus Connecticut but she played very, very well against Penn State,” Daly said. “She really is getting them downfield, she is being a force. She is attracting opponents. What she has to do now is just release that ball at the right time once she has drawn people.”
In addition to her scoring, the sophomore midfielder also helped set up two of the Tribe goals in the second half. Schaffer played a touch from Berry into the box in the 53rd minute that led to Cortlyn Bristol’s first goal of the season and made the score 2-0.
Schaffer and Bristol then hooked up again in the 72nd minute, with Schaffer beating her defender down the right side before sending a low ball to the waiting foot of Bristol.
Senior back Kaitlin O’Connor also scored on the night, banging home a penalty kick after a Loyola player was penalized taking down Berry in the box.
For Daly, the most impressive feature of Friday’s win was not the offensive output itself, but rather the fact that the offense came form so many different players.
“I men, Kaitlin now has two goals [senior forward Danielle Axenfeld] has a goal, Audrey has got one and three or four assist,” Daly said. “Because we don’t have an out-and-out 12 or 14 goal player, we need to have four or five six or seven goal players to make up for it.”
