Soccer rebounds from first loss with shutout against NIU
Central Michigan junior midfielder Shelia Magnan works the ball at the CMU Soccer Complex.
Central Michigan soccer rebounded from its first loss of the season with a convincing win Oct. 6 over Northern Illinois.
The Chippewas (6-1-2, 3-1-0 Mid-American Conference) defeated the Huskies (2-8-1,0-4-0), 2-0.
CMU opened the scoring when senior midfielder Marle Bringard scored her fourth goal of the season. Bringard, who had six goals in her career prior to this season, has been in peak form at the beginning of the season for CMU.
Coach Jeremy Groves started Bringard more in a forward position against Northern Illinois, hoping she would be able to create more chances.
“In terms of what we do in training,” Groves said about Bringard, “putting her around goal and pushing her a little bit, having a standard and she’s rose to it so far. She’s been great.”
The change in positioning is something that could stick for the Chippewas as the season continues with Bringard having scored the most goals on the team.
“We put her up front today, she’s dangerous.” Groves said. “She gets the ball down; she creates stuff; she’s a handful going forward.”
Zoie Reed played great was again in goal for CMU, earning her fourth shutout of the season. She made two saves in each half, with the first half presenting more challenges.
The senior said she does what she needs to do in order to win and does not worry about her individual numbers.
“I don’t look at stats that often,” Reed said about her four shutouts. “I’m just trying to help my teammates win. Honestly it’s the soldiers in front of me that really help bring this team together. I just try to do my job and do it to the best of my abilities.”
Juniors Natalie Belsito and Amanda Britain each did a good job of getting back on defense and cutting off scoring opportunities before they threatened Reed.
After the game, Reed addressed how important those two have been so far this season.
“They’ve done a phenomenal job in the past few games, they’ve really helped this team grow,” Reed said. “They have absolutely done a phenomenal job, just doing what they have to do to make this team win.”
The second goal of the day was scored by freshman Cami Taylor, her second of the season.
Freshman forward Lauren DeBeau had three shots, two of which were on goal, against the Huskies while playing with a leg injury.
“Minor (injury), soft tissue,” Groves said. “We've just got to monitor it, she did a little bit yesterday morning and we got a short turnaround here for Thursday against Bowling Green so she probably won’t do much this week.”
DeBeau has scored one goal so far this season, but she ranks near the top of the team in shots. After the game, Groves said that she just needs to keep working on it in training and getting used to it, noting that experience could play a factor.
“One way of looking at it is she’s putting herself in the position to have those opportunities,” Groves said. “I think I’d be a little more worried if we weren’t getting in those positions. I got a feeling once she gets one, there’s a bunch more that will kind of follow after that.”
The Chippewas will play Bowling Green (5-4-2, 3-0 MAC) on Oct. 10 in Bowling Green, Ohio. BGSU is currently in first place in the MAC but with a win, the Chippewas would move ahead of the Falcons in the MAC standings.
