Lancers finish home stand on high note
Colella’s free kick lifts Lancers past Howard in 1–0 win
Derrick Bennington | Sports Staff | @Derrick_Benn
All signs were pointing towards a scoreless draw on Sunday afternoon before Longwood senior forward Olivia Colella finally broke through in the 83rd minute to propel the Lancers (2–1–0) to a 1–0 win over the Howard University Bison (1–2–0).
Colella fired a free kick over a wall of defenders and curved it back to the lower left corner, past defending Howard freshman goalkeeper Mackenzie Diotte, to give Longwood the edge needed to close their opening home stand on a strong note and improve to 2–1–0.
Prior to the goal, Diotte had racked up ten saves, finishing with 11.
“I still don’t think we’ve found our true form,” said head coach Todd Dyer. “We’re happy with the result, but it was definitely an ugly win.”
Sunday’s win came off the heels of a full week of rest after opening the season 1–1–0 with two games in three days, splitting games with American and Youngstown State Universities.
“I thought we were patient keeping the ball across the back. We found each other at times, created some chances,” said Dyer. “Definitely the case of an ugly win, but we’ll take that over a pretty loss any day.”
The afternoon saw the Lancers outshoot Howard 23–6 with 13 on target in comparison to the Bison’s two.
“We were a better passing team today, and Howard (University) was a tough matchup because they played a 4–4–2 with a box midfield that plays pretty much centrally and that’s hard to break down,” said Dyer.
Colella’s goal was the fourth game-winner of her career; she finished with three shots, all of them being on goal.
Longwood juniors, midfielder Amanda Spencer and forward Gina D’Orazio, combined for five shots, two being on goal. Freshman forward Amber Gustafson also delivered seven shots, four on goal.
“We had a lot of shots registered on the scoreboard,” said Dyer. “I don’t know how many of them were real quality chances, but we don’t seem to have our legs quite back under us yet from preseason.”
Senior forward Lilly Payne provided a spark on offense the Lancers lacked the last time out against Youngstown State as the former walk-on added a shot and created multiple opportunities in the box.
“Lilly (Payne) gave us a big boost in the second half with her energy. The way she was pressuring their backs is how we want to do it all over the field, but if everyone’s not on the same page it kind of falls apart a little bit,” said Dyer.
Sunday’s 1–0 win was the second shutout from a Longwood goalie this season and sophomore goalkeeper Maria Kirby’s second full-game shutout in her career. The first one of the season came from senior Hailey Machen against American University.
Longwood will now hit the road for five consecutive contests against Virginia Tech, Western Carolina University, the Virginia Military Institute, West Virginia University and University of Richmond before welcoming defending Big South champion High Point on September 23.
“We haven’t played a game on the road yet so obviously we have to play well, we have to stay united in what we do in terms of out tactics and our team effort,” said Dyer. “Any time you’re on the road, if you can get the first goal, that immediately settles you down, gives you a little bit of confidence and you can kind of play your way out of it from there.”
The Lancers will start that daunting road swing on Wednesday night in Blacksburg against the No. 9 nationally-ranked Hokies (3–0–1) who are coming off a 1–1 draw with University of Tennessee this past weekend.
“Virginia Tech is a top-10 team, that’s not going to be an easy one, so we’ll have to be special that night but I do think we have that in us,” said Dyer. “We’re excited to go down there and find out.”
