William and Mary 1, Delaware 0
Lifted by a last-second goal from sophomore forward Ashley Kyle, William and Mary (3-8, 1-2 CAA) defeated Delaware (4-7, 0-4 CAA) 1-0 on a rainy Sunday afternoon at Busch Field.
“It felt great [to score], but it was a total team win,” Kyle said.
There were only 34 seconds left in the game when a crowd of players from both teams appeared along the right sideline near the Delaware goal. Freshman forward Taylor Gladey managed to get to the ball first and knocked it towards Kyle, who flipped the ball up to the top right-hand corner of the net.
Until that point, the game had been scoreless because of the Tribe’s strong defense. Delaware was held to just eight shots on-goal and 14 shots between both periods, while the Tribe had ten shots on-goal and 20 shots total. The teams were nearly even on penalty corners, as the Tribe had five and the Blue Hens had four.
“We earned this,” Head Coach Peel Hawthorne ’80 said. “They were persistent, and today it fell our way.”
The Tribe also received a green card in the first half and a yellow card in the second half because of the team’s intensity. After a close loss to Towson last Friday, the team changed its style of play to change the the game’s outcome.
“It was tough to come back after such a heartbreaking loss,” Hawthorne said. “It was a real team effort, and we were connecting a little better. We were focused today.”
Kyle agreed that the close loss and the close win would help the team’s concentration in the future during similar games.
“This will really focus us,” Kyle said. “We know we can do it now.”
Although the win provided a jolt to the team members’ confidences, their mindsets remain firmly in the present.
“We have to take it one game at a time and not go backwards,” Hawthorne said. “It’s not like we slaughtered them today … I was thinking about my overtime lineup. I think we’ve got the speed and skill to win in overtime.”
The team’s next games are scheduled to start at 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 8 at Hofstra and at noon on Sunday, Oct. 10 at Drexel.
