Three days after winning a non-conference game on the road, the No. 9 Montclair State University Women's Soccer team hosted their New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) rivals, Rowan University at MSU Soccer Park.
These two teams met in last year's NJAC championship game and Rowan defeated Montclair State 2-1. For that reason, today's match meant a little extra for the Red Hawks, who were looking to get off on the right foot in their first clash with the Profs at their home field.
However, the visiting Profs had other plans and their leading goal scorer, Olivia Giordano helped them control the first half. Giordano rattled off two shots on goal in the opening four minutes of the game, but the Red Hawks veteran goalkeeper, Haley Martin stood tall and saved each one. In the eighth minute, however, Montclair State got their first scoring chance when they had a corner kick. Emmi DeNovellis received a pass near the edge of the 18-yard box before taking a shot that sailed barely over the crossbar.
Other than that attempt and one more taken by Red Hawks leading goal scorer on the season, forward Kylie Prendergast in the 13th minute, Rowan did a good job of preventing Montclair State from getting going offensively on the road. Even though Montclair State ceded a total of eight shot attempts and four shots-on-goal in the first half, their graduate student goalkeeper, Haley Martin played tremendous and kept the visitors off the board.
Red Hawks Rebound in Second Half
Coming into Saturday, the Red Hawks women's soccer team had gone winless and suffered three losses against Rowan in their previous four meetings. But in the second half, the Red Hawks showed how badly they wanted to win by putting in a better performance.
In the 45th minute, Red Hawks head coach Pat Naughter made five substitutions, including taking off midfielder Aileen Cahill for Shannon Mullins and left back Emmi DeNovellis for Julie Baker. Despite all these changes, Martin had to make a huge save in the 49th minute. The play began with a Profs player ripping a hard shot from the edge of the Red Hawks box. The shot was so hard that it had to be parried up into the air by Martin but she left a rebound a few feet away from her. Ever alert, the Red Hawks goalkeeper managed to smother the loose ball before an opponent reached it.
It took until the 60th minute for the Red Hawks to get going offensively and as the old saying goes, "when they come, they come in bunches." Montclair earned three straight corner kicks from the 62nd to the 64th minute, but none amounted to anything. Then in the 67th minute, Red Hawks took another corner kick, which center back Kerri Driscoll almost got her head to before she Rowan's goalkeeper ran into her while punching the ball away, which was called a foul.
Shortly after that, the Profs earned a Corner Kick of their own. Taken from the left flag, the corner found a Prof inside the Red Hawks six-yard box, who was unmarked. The Prof then headed the ball towards the far post, but the ball rolled just wide of the post.
After escaping that Rowan corner without conceding in the 70th minute, the Red Hawks went to work. Their backline did a great job of stepping up into challenges in the midfield and stopping Rowan from possessing the ball, which allowed the Red Hawks midfield to get some offense going. The Red Hawks had their best chance to register a shot on net and score in the 84th minute, when Prendergast received a pass that played her into space in the 18-yard box and with clear sight of Rowan's goal, but the play was called offside.
When the 90 minutes had ended, this rivalry game ended in a scoreless draw. This was a very well-played match where the Red Hawks may not have produced much offense but came away from their fourth conference match with a draw thanks to outstanding performances from their goalkeeper and backline.
Postgame Reactions from the Red Hawks
Haley Martin made five saves in this match, including solving her own mistake on a shot, early in the second half. After the game, the veteran goalkeeper described the emotions behind today's draw with their arch-rivals.
We're always excited to play them, they're a really good team. It's just exciting that Coach said, 'only good teams get big games like this.' So, we just leaned into the energy and gave them everything we had.
Martin then was asked about how her team was able to keep the game close despite getting outshot 8-2 in the first half.
We're very disciplined at the back. We focused a lot in practice on not giving them a lot on corners and if a corner did arise, what to do. We we're excellent at clearing out the first and second ball, and that just helped us connect going forward.
For the Red Hawks women's soccer team, drawing with their arch-rival may not be the result they wanted but it's not a major disappointment. The Red Hawks are a little more than halfway through their 2023 regular season schedule and remain undefeated against NJAC opponents with a 2-0-2 record.
Red Hawks head coach Patrick Naughter discussed how his team weathered what was a difficult first half for Montclair State.
That's the best team we've seen, and we've got one of the toughest schedules in the country and first half looked like we played a tough one on Wednesday night and they had their feet up all week. The amount of rest in between your next game is massive and I think that showed. We did enough to keep them off the board in the first half but in the first half, we were the second-best team.
Naughter's Red Hawks are not the kind of team to let themselves get outworked for a full 90 minutes and despite the fact that they were outplayed in the first half, they rebounded well in the second half.
In the second half, our group was awesome. The ball was moving around, we played well. I thought we bossed the game there for the second 45 minutes in that we were the better team there. It's one of those ties where it was just even throughout. I thought they won the first half, we won the second half, and we call it a draw and I think we'll see them in the NJAC Tournament at some point.
The Red Hawks will turn the page on their first meeting with Rowan University and now must focus on their next opponent. That opponent is Rutgers Newark, and the Red Hawks will play them next Wednesday in Newark at 7:00 pm, right before facing No. 13 The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) on Oct. 14.
The effort level that went into that one was massive; it takes a lot out of you. We're playing a Rutgers Newark team that's very good. I get it, the noise, the chatter it's Rowan, its TCNJ, those are the games that everyone highlights but they all count the same. Rutgers Newark have some very good players, they have a really good [head] coach who I've known since we we're kids, and we played together and against [each other]. They're going to be ready for us and there's no easy outs in the NJAC and going on the road to Newark on Wednesday night in between [games versus] Rowan and TCNJ. I just hope we get a win. We just need to hit the back of the net more than they do but like I said, these guys have had a million challenges. They've been awesome, they've answered the bell every time. I need to just keep giving them opportunities and let them do their thing.
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