Girls soccer struggles in the weather but wins against Marymount

On Thursday, Dec. 15, Samo’s girls soccer team won their last home game of the semester against Marymount High School 2-1. The game started with both Samo and Marymount playing very well. They were connecting their passes, communicating with each other and constantly moving. Marymount scored the first goal of the game after a mishap between one of Samo’s defenders and the goalie, but forward Dai Williams (’19) scored an equalizer shortly after. “It was a heck of a ride. We went from two to three clear chances, which could have easily gone in and would have made a huge difference in terms of tempo of the game, we didn’t convert on those and left the door open,” coach Jimmy Chapman said. “Right before the first half, Marymount was able to finish. We had to battle back, which we did which is kind of our signature thing.”For the rest of the game, Marymount outplayed Samo. They were consistently winning over the ball, taking advantage of Samo’s turnovers, keeping the ball on Samo’s side of the field and managing to pull off some shots on goal. On top of this, Samo’s players were definitely playing against the elements of nature. According to Chapman, the weather during the game affected Samo’s performance more than it should have.“Girls were not checking as much to the ball, securing the ball so a lot more error in passings and we were giving the ball up way too much,” Chapman said. “They possessed the ball more than we did and I think that was partly because of the weather.”With all the mishaps that happened, it’s definitely worth noting all the positive things Samo did this game. Towards the end of the second half, a Marymount player was able to outplay a few of Samo’s defenders. At that point it was up to the goalie to stop the player from getting a shot off. Luckily the Marymount player took too long, resulting in Madeline Kresin (’17) to dive and snatch the ball from her before she could get a shot off. In addition, during the minutes of the game, midfielder Maya Cooper (’19) managed to score a shot from far out, causing Samo to take the lead and ultimately win. “I think we played pretty well. The other team was very good and the other team was getting through our defense and our goalie had a phenomenal game,” midfielder Alex Steigelfest (’19)  said. “Based of this game if there’s one thing we need to work on it’s playing to our feet and making shots on target.”