SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - The Bloomsburg women's soccer team finished Saturday afternoon with a 0-0 draw on the road against Shepherd.
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The Huskies (8-4-1, 5-4-1 PSAC East) offense on the day put a pair of chances on target in the first half, but the team's best chance found the back of the net in the second half.
Olivia Thompson (Pottstown, Pa./Owen J. Roberts) won a race to the ball and poked it into the bottom after the opposing goalkeeper spilled a shot into open play, but the goal was disallowed due to a raised offside flag. The Rams (9-3-1, 6-3-1 PSAC East) recorded 11 total shots, including their first three shots on target, just in the second half.
Izzy Hoffeditz (Mercersburg, Pa./James Buchanan) made all three stops, featuring a result-saving aerial stop in the dying seconds of the match to keep the draw.
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How It Happened:
Shepherd applied the pressure early in the final third, getting off the first two shots of the day just past the five-minute mark. The Rams got off a successful through ball to a player making an in cut, getting past one defender with a clear path to goal. As the shot was loaded up,
Daryn Savage (Bensalem, Pa./Archbishop Wood) arrived just as the connection was made to redirect the ball out of bounds. The subsequent corner eventually made its way outside the box for an inconsequential effort from way out.
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Thompson almost got onto the scoresheet in the 11th minute, as Bloomsburg nearly caught Shepherd on the counterattack. The Rams momentarily cleared the ball out of the back with a long pass that ended up being hit forward into a pocket of space by the Huskies. The senior won the race to the ball, but the chance would come up empty, with Thompson unable to settle the ball as she would have liked. Shepherd's final two chances of the half nearly put Bloomsburg into a hole, as a header from a corner routine and a one-on-one chance off the left side of goal both ended up drifting wide for the home team.
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Hoffeditz made her first save of the match on the Rams' first shot of the second half, as the match cooled for an extended period of time. Over 13 minutes went by before a couple of corner kicks and attempts at goal came around for Shepherd. The Huskies nearly had their breakthrough moment after over an hour of play as
Anika Krasnai (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township) fired off a pair of shots stopped just in the nick of time from finding the back of the net. The second effort, a chance from the edge of the 18-yard box, was pushed away from its intended target of the bottom left corner and into the path of Thompson. A Rams defender, in an effort to block the initial shot, put Thompson in an offside position on what could have been the game-winning goal.
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Shepherd committed everything in the closing minutes to find a difference-maker, but the number of quality shots was limited. The Rams settled for several long-range chances, including one easily caught by Hoffeditz. The Bloomsburg goalkeeper finished with arguably the play of the match, making a phenomenal, outstretched save with one arm to parry a ball destined for the top-right corner over the crossbar to keep the contest without a goal.
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On the Horizon:
Bloomsburg returns to Steph Pettit Stadium on Wednesday, October 14, at 3:00 p.m. to take on Mansfield.
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