Heart Fuels Win for the Lady Spartans

Cayuga Women's Soccer claimed their first victory of the 2012 season this afternoon, on the road, defeating Corning Community College 3-2.  Playing down two for the third game in a row, the Spartans found themselves down 2-0 at the intermission, after the Lady Red Barons' Taylor Lathrop scored on an assist from Erika Hoad in the 33^rd minute and Jocelyn Garrison's unassisted strike with 2 minutes remaining before the break.

The Lady Spartans maintained their composure and came out with refocused energy at the start of the second half.  They utilized the width of the field and countered on the Red Barons lost possession in the middle of the pitch.  Goalie Bre Becker (Lusby, MD) was slowed in the 35^th minute on a collision with Nicole Sutryk, but gathered herself and played the restart to midfielder Tia Segretto (Jordan-Elbridge, NY) .  Segretto would then carry the ball through the Red Barons middle and defensive thirds, before placing her shot to the lower near post for the first goal in the 34^th minute.  Segretto then assisted on Brooke Mayfield's (Ontario, NY) first goal of the campaign, with a precise through ball behind the Red Barons back four.  Mayfield used her speed to get in behind the Red Barons last two defenders and drilled an upper 90 shot to the far corner to even the match (30^th minute).  The game winner came when Mayfield, Theresa Miller (Southern Cayuga, NY) and Sarah Miller (Auburn, NY) built quality combination passes through the middle of the pitch, leading to a handball inside the 18.   Segretto calmly buried the game winner in the left corner at the 19:50 mark.  From there Becker would continue to come up big in net (16 saves on the day) and the 8 remaining Lady Spartans settled into their defensive and middle thirds shutting down any further attempts by Garrison, Lathrop and Bernadett Gublo. 

Coach Renaud was extremely pleased with the effort put forth.   "We have been a short sided squad all of pre-season and into the early part of the 2012 campaign.  The girls have remained positive, worked hard as a unit and deserved to win this match today, despite playing 2 down.  I cannot say enough about the performance of Bre (Becker) in goal and Tia's (Segretto) ability to manage the full 120 x 80 for 90 minutes.  Lynsey Potter (Pulaski, NY) and Tiffany Westmiller (Port Byron, NY) came up big from their outside marking back positions.  And I think Brooke Mayfield's play the entire 90, was the spark we needed to overcome the two goal deficit.  We realized our potential in the second half of the North Country match, where we still played down, but put together great combination play and pulled off the moral victory of winning the last 45 minutes of the contest.  I have been fortunate to win a lot of games over the course of my career, and this victory today ranks up at the top as one of my biggest.  The heart these girls displayed was inspiring."

For the day, Corning outshot the Spartans 22 to 15.  Offsides were Corning-4, Cayuga-1.  Fouls: Corning-8, Cayuga-2.  Saves:  Corning- Aja Gosper 9, Cayuga- Bre Becker 16.  Corner Kicks: Corning-3, Cayuga-1