Breakers Fall To Western New York Flash At Home
Soccer News: The Western New York Flash scored two first half goals on their way to a 2-0 win Sunday night in front of 2,011 fans at Soldiers Field Soccer Stadium in Allston, Massachusetts.
The game, which saw Boston’s Kristie Mewis square off against her sister Sam Mewis of the Flash, dropped the Breakers to 3-5-2 and bumped the Flash up to 4-4-1.
The rain at kickoff saw both teams struggle in the early minutes to combine for goal-scoring chances on the slick surface. Boston was able to threaten a few times in the first 15 minutes on the counter, but was never able to finish one.
The first threat of the game came in the seventh minute when Kristie Mewis was able to fire a shot right on after she took the ball just past midfield and carried it to the top of the box, but Flash keeper Chantel Jones palmed it away for one of her seven saves. Five minutes later, Maddy Evans worked hard on the right side of the box around some Flash defenders to send in a cross that missed Krisite Mewis’ head.
In the 19th minute, Katie Schoepfer sent Mewis in on a ball over the top, and a few seconds later, Suzane Pires received a ball all alone outside the six-yard line but the shot sailed over the top of the net for a goal kick.
“We created chances tonight that we didn’t finish,” Boston Breakers head coach Tom Durkin said. We got in some good positions tonight, but took extra touches where we didn’t need to.”
Western New York capitalized on the restart and some Breakers lapses, as the ball bounced around midfield and found Jamia Fields running down the right side towards Jami Kranich. Fields’ low shot towards the post bounced off of Kranich’s chest and across the goalmouth to a waiting Lynn Williams, who tapped it in for the 1-0 lead and her second goal of the season.
First-year player Williams played a key role in the second Flash goal of the game at the end of the first half. Williams made a sleek pass to a streaking and fellow first-year player Elizabeth Eddy. Eddy found herself one-on-one with Kranich, who had come out to the top of the box, and worked around her to slot the ball home for the second goal of the game.
This came after Boston had almost tied the game in the 36th minute after some hard work by Kristie Mewis on the left flank. Mewis collected the ball 40 yards out and soon found herself muscling through four Flash defenders near the left post before an attempted cross found its way to Morgan Marlborough. With her back to the net, Marlborough found Schoepfer alone at the top of the box and she rifled a shot on goal, but as she had earlier in the half, Jones once again came up big with her hands and parried it out for a corner.
Boston struggled to finish when they had the chance, firing 17 shots with seven on target.
“We’re not really happy with our performance,” Kristie Mewis said. “It really didn’t end up being what we wanted it to be, so we’re pretty disappointed.”
Boston did a better job in the second half to shut down the younger Mewis, Fields and Jasmyne Spencer. Kranich, who had three saves in the game, also received help from the left post after a Spencer header bounced back to keep it 2-0. Sam Mewis also found herself with an opportunity to put the Flash up 3-0 in the 54th minute when she ran onto a ball just inside the box but her shot missed the frame.
“We were better in the second half, but not good enough,” said Durkin.
Offensively in the second half, the Breakers saw much of the same frustrations, as they created several nice chances, but none could find the back of the net.
“Every game is going to be difficult in this league,” Durkin said, “and you have to be ready to compete.”
Stephanie McCaffrey came on in the 66th minute and churned down the right side of the flank and picked her head up to thread a pass between three Flash defenders and find Mewis, but the ensuing off-balance shot went wide of the net. McCaffrey earned a free kick for Boston in the 86th minute when she was fouled outside the 18, but a shot from Bia was saved by Jones for a corner, just as she had done 10 minutes earlier after receiving a cross from Mollie Pathman, giving Jones her first shutout in a Flash uniform.
“Today we got the job done away from home. The team stuck to the game plan and were very, very eager to get that first away result under the belt,” said Flash general manager and head coach Aaran Lines. “We waited a while for it. We’ve been close in a few occasions but we had the will get it done today.”
The Breakers return to action Thursday, July 9, at home against FC Kansas City before hosting the Chicago Red Stars on Wednesday, July 15.
The Flash will return to Sahlen’s Stadium on Friday night when it hosts Seattle Reign FC. Tickets for the game are as low as $5 through the Flash’s Women’s World Cup promotion. They can be purchased online.
