By SHANE COUGHLIN Senior Staff Writer
Entering 2015 after their first Final Four appearance in program history, the Hopkins women’s soccer team was in top form earning two victories to start their season.
Both wins came during the Blue Jay Invitational, hosted at Homewood Field this past weekend, and served as a strong statement out of the gates for the projected Centennial Conference favorites.
“It was a big weekend for us,” junior goalkeeper Sarah Benett said. “It was out first game with the freshmen, and I think we played more calmly and were able to move the ball around, which created all our chances. It was a great feeling and a great way to start off our season.”
In their first contest against York, the Jays were able to strike first as junior Meg Van de Loo secured the team’s first goal of the season with her 12th career score. Plenty of defensive pressure held the opposing Spartans to just five shots but York eventually came up with the equalizer when Emily Huey was able to find open net in the top right corner shortly after the second half resumed.
The tie held strong until a late game substitution brought freshman Kristen Hori onto the field for Hopkins who assisted sophomore Thea Harvey-Brown for the tie-breaking goal that would eventually prove to be the game winner. The dramatic goal was the first of Harvey-Brown’s career with Hori grabbing her first career point.
“After York scored we increased in the pressure to create more attacking opportunities,” Harvey-Brown said. “Kristen did most of the work to get the ball down the line and I just hit it into the net.” The game came to a close at 2-1 in favor of Hopkins for a season opener win.
The Jay’s second game of the invitational was against state rival Frostburg. The first half remained fairly competitive closing at 2-1 with only 11 shots on goal. Hori returned to action after her heroic assist with two additional points in the opening period with both a goal and an assist. Junior captain Ana Bengoechea was the recipient of Hori’s assist, taking the pass at the top of the box before scoring in the bottom right.
The second half is when the offense really took off for Hopkins with14 shots on goal. Bengoechea found Van De Loo who scored in her second straight game to begin the offensive explosion. Junior captain Alexa Rangecroft then turned a sophomore Bailey Monaco pass into her first goal of the season bringing the Hopkins advantage to 4-1.
The next goal was recorded as an own goal but was the result of a sophomore Hallie Horvath cross that ended in the net after a Frostburg defender attempted to clear it. To finish off the brilliant afternoon, Monaco recorded her second point of the day scoring the final goal bringing the score to 6-1 and giving Hopkins a 2-0 start to the season.
“We didn’t have someone score twice, which shows a lot about the depth of our team and how we work together in order to be successful,” said Benett, who recorded a save while finishing the last 30 minutes in goal.
“Offensively, I think we are starting to work really well together,” Bengoechea, a second team All-American in 2014, said. “As a team, we get really excited when we score six goals, and I could not have expected a better result to begin our season.”
“There are still a lot of things we can work on, and we will continue to work hard at practice and every game,” Bengoechea said. “ We have been focusing a lot on defensive and attacking tactics to play ‘smart’ soccer and hopefully reach our goal of winning a National Championship.”
