Fairfield found themselves on the short end of the stick on Saturday when they played out-of-conference rival Boston College.
An early lead was not enough for the Stags to hold on and they ended up with a 19-7 deficit, bringing their overall record to 0-3, while Boston improves 1-1.
“We came out the second half and we struggled coming out of the draw, and I think we just reverted back to a lot of the not-so-great play in the first two games,” said Head Coach Stacey McCue.
Fairfield found itself up early in the game with a 4-1 lead over the Eagles. But it was not enough to hold back BC’s strong offense. After the Eagles called a timeout, they dominated the net, scoring six goals for the rest of the half, which put them at a 7-5 lead going into intermission.
“We had a great first half, our attacks looked the best it had. The end of the half was 7-5 them and you know two goals is nothing in lax,” McCue said.
But during the second half, Fairfield found themselves chasing Eagle tail feather, as Boston went on a 16-goal streak to leave Fairfield in the dust. BC out scored the Stags 12-2 in the second half for a final score of 19-7.
“BC is a strong team and they took advantage and we just tried everything but nothing was working,” said McCue. “We need to start keeping persistent and doing the things that work for us and the second half we fell apart.”
In Fairfield’s first two games they were struggling at midfield. However, Saturday was different, with break downs happening mostly in defense.
“The first two games it was completely midfield transition, and yesterday [Saturday] it was our defense that broke down,” McCue said. “It was coming up with the draw, so we weren’t getting possession of the ball and they [Fairfield] weren’t playing the style of defense they should have been playing.”
Despite the loss, it was another stand out game for sophomore Rebecca White as she tallied two goals along with junior Amy Neville. Also scoring goals for the Stags were Nina Tedeschi ’10, Kim Fuchs ’09, and Ashley Jenkins ’10.
In goal, Lauren Chatnik ’09 made four saves, allowing 19 goals and played for 58 minutes. The last two minutes were played by rookie Jessica Parnell who saw her first action of the season, but did not face a shot.
So what is it going to take to be able to put the two halves together?
According to McCue, the Stags played as individuals instead of a team when BC started pulling away. But with a positive first half, McCue hopes that the girls will be able to pull together a full game of cohesive play.
“We need to continue doing the things we did really well in the first half of the BC game and then just focusing on being able to do that the entire game,” she said. “They [the team] are ready for a way in.”
Despite the loss, the team is still in good spirits and ready to make changes for the upcoming game against Long Island University that was postponed until Thursday.
“I think everyone is frustrated, but [they are] frustrated more because they know what they are capable of doing, which isn’t a bad place to be,” McCue said. “They know what they are capable of, so they are pretty excited to put it together.”
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