Soccer drops third straight, opens MAC play with loss to WMU
It has been three matches since Central Michigan soccer has scored a goal, as Friday’s contest against Western Michigan ended in a 1-0 loss, marking the team’s third consecutive defeat.
“(Western) had two or three chances in the whole game,” Head Coach Peter McGahey said. “I think they took their best one and they scored.”
WMU registered 18 shots against CMU’s defensive unit in the Mid-American Conference opener, but only three of those shots were on goal.
McGahey’s team managed seven shots, four of which were on goal. Three of the team’s four shots on the afternoon came from junior midfielder Samantha Maher and two of those three shots were on target.
The Chippewa’s last goal scored came off the foot of junior midfielder Eliza Van de Kerkhove on Sept. 10 at Michigan. CMU would go on to lose the match 3-1 to the Wolverines.
McGahey said part of the reason for his team’s lack of recent success on the attacking front can be attributed to the absence of rhythm and flow. Players finding difficulty scoring can tend to possess the ball for too long.
“The reality is that you still have to play confidently, composed and cleanly,” McGahey said.
Going without a goal for three consecutive games sounds like a troubling statistic, but the outcomes of those three games have all been by scores of 1-0. All three games could easily have gone in favor of CMU.
“I would’ve expected us to have a little bit better performance than we did today. At the same time, to keep the game 1-0, (considering) when and how (WMU) scored their goal, I thought is a credit to our resiliency. It certainly shows a lot in the team and I think that’s something to build on.”
The lone goal of the game came with 4:21 played in the first half.
With the loss to the rival-Broncos the Chippewas bring a 1-6-1 record with them into their next match of the weekend.
CMU’s next match will be at 2 p.m. on Sept. 27 against Northern Illinois at the NIU Soccer and Track & Field Complex.
The Chippewas lost last season’s meeting in overtime to the Huskies 2-1 in Mount Pleasant.
