College soccer: Lady Falcons fall in home opener

To be sure, there were 11 UTPB women's soccer team players on the field Wednesday against visiting Abilene Christian. But sometimes, it looked like there were way more Wildcats, the seeming abundance of purple jerseys swarming to the ball on defense and quickly running crisp lanes toward the goal on offense.

Indeed, the teams had an equal amount of players, but Abilene Christian was the better team in a 2-0 nonconference victory in the Lady Falcons' home opener.

"It seemed like they had an extra defender," Lady Falcons head coach Dennis Peterson said.

In reality, some UTPB players said, most weren't making the runs on counterattacks, leaving few passing options for those with the ball and even fewer clean looks at the goal.

The Lady Falcons (1-3) had six shots - three on goal - compared to Abilene Christian's 23 shots, 11 on goal. Of those 23, one by Jordan Reese was deflected by UTPB's Katelin Benefiel and went into the goal to put the Wildcats ahead 1-0 in the 13th minute.

In the 78th minute, Abilene Christian's Jackie Gentile notched a goal, a one-timer from about 15 feet out. Solid runs by the team got her a clean look, and that was something the Lady Falcons lacked.

 "When we get the ball on the outside and cross it in, it's usually me or one other forward making the runs and that's not acceptable," said UTPB junior forward Brandy Watts, one of five players who had a shot and the only one with more than one (she had two). "We need our midfield and some defenders making the runs in there like they did to us. They did that to us, and we got scored on."

 And while Abilene Christian (1-1-1) played aggressive defense, it could've been combated with sharper passing, Peterson said.

"If we would've passed the ball even remotely better on quite a few of our attacking occasions we probably would've got a better look at their goal," Peterson said. "In the offensive third, we made bad decisions with the ball. We noticed in their attack they were attacking with six, seven girls at one time and when we'd get the ball in our offensive third we might have two or three attacking ... That's just a matter of being fatigued."

Peterson wasn't willing to pin the loss completely on fatigue - the team arrived Tuesday from a season-opening three-game set in Hawaii - but he will probably have a much lighter practice today, he said.

Meanwhile, freshman goalkeeper Samantha Brownlee, in her second start while replacing the injured junior Stephanie Ward, had nine saves.

There's no timetable for Ward's return, as the swelling on her left knee has to go away before she can receive an MRI, Peterson said.

However, Watts said Brownlee is a capable replacement and the team's focus should be on overcoming fatigue during games and executing runs.

"It's like we're still trying to jell with each other, but at this stage we should already be jelled together," Watts said. "After two (past) scrimmages that don't count, we should already know where everybody's gonna be. It's the little things that we still have to work on, and we shouldn't still have to work on them at this level."