In a tense, hard-fought battle on the pitch, the Kenyon College Ladies soccer team kept attacking and broke through in the second half to down the Kenyon College Grizzlies, 1-0, on Saturday at Faght Stadium in Franklin, Ind.
The Ladies, playing in their first road game of the season, began the game as the aggressors, using through balls to push into the Grizzlies end of the field. This resulted in plenty of shots, but the Franklin defense prevented Kenyon from getting a lot of clean looks at goal. For the half, only one of the Ladies' eleven shots, taken by Samantha Hayes, was on goal.
The Ladies had more chances than the Grizzlies, including three corners that came up empty. Franklin had one golden opportunity go awry when long pass through the right was about to become a scoring opportunity, but Ladies goalie Leah Anderson gobbled up the ball to help maintain the 0-0 tie going into halftime.
It didn’t take long for the Ladies to make some noise in the second half. In the 49th minute, Kenyon took a corner kick that resulted in a shot by Sadie Gould from the edge of the box. The shot was deflected by Grizzlies’ goalkeeper Riley Rice, but she could not secure it. That allowed Olivia Dion to enter the scrum for the ball and tap it into the back of the net to put the Ladies on top. It was Dion’s second goal of the campaign.
That goal proved to be all that Kenyon needed, as the Ladies used a strong defensive effort to keep Franklin off the board and preserve the 1-0 victory. For the game, Kenyon outshot the Grizzlies, 24-3.
With their second straight win, the Ladies moved to 3-4 on the season.
