By Danny Contreras
A stunning header late in the first half from CCSU (8-8-1, 4-3-1 NEC) captain Cilo Tregear was enough to defeat Bryant University 1-0 Sunday afternoon.
“The loss to St Francis last week was bitterly disappointing. However, we have now won four of our last five games. We are striving for a high level of consistency,” said Head Coach Mick D’Arcy.
“Our team defense is much improved in the last few weeks. It’s important that we don’t get ahead of ourselves. The St Francis game reminded all of us that we still have work to do to give our team a shot at the post season.”
CCSU started the game confidently, coming off a lost to St. Francis. They quickly imposed themselves as the better team following a midfield mishap from Bryant.
The next minutes were fought in the midfield with the midfielders enjoying possession, moving the ball down the field onto the Bryant’s flanks, threatening with crosses and perfectly timed through balls. Bryant was becoming impatient and gave a careless fall about 25 yards from goal. Jewel Robinson took the free kick. The curling ball was met by Tregear who pulled the trigger for another forced save.
With Bryant overcrowding the midfield in an effort to maintain possession, a break came in the 34th minute when Beth Lloyd won the ball from Bryant defender Alyssa Kozlowski, the striker was off target and missed the goal from 10 yards.
Bryant’s first true chance came only a minute later when a cross from the midfield was met by Bryant’s Julie Vajda who headed in a ball that went out wide. Shortly thereafter, CCSU overwhelmed Bryant with threatening runs down the Bryant half.
Finally, after the strikers tested the goalkeeper multiple times in a span of two minutes, it was Blue Devil defender Abby Graham who got the closest to scoring—forcing a corner kick from a deflected shot. The ball was volleyed over the box and was met by Tregear’s head who bounced the ball on the floor with enough force and angle that it went calmly past the post, leaving the defense and the goalkeeper helpless.
Shortly thereafter the first half finished with CCSU leading 1-0.
For ten minutes in the second half Bryant tried to counter attack, and came close multiple times at equalizing but couldn’t capitalize.
On the 75th minute it was Kelley who was tormenting Viverito with a curling ball from the center that went out wide resulting in a goal kick. Following the goal kick, Beth Lloyd received the ball and brought down the left. Knowing she was going to be denied a shot she made a shot on goal but was called offside; a rather dubious call as she was fighting off a Bryant defender.
Just ten minutes after the call, it was the same duo who tortured the Bryant defense with their pace. After a perfectly timed through ball, it was Kelley who scored a clear goal, but was disallowed after another offside call even though she was perfectly onside.
“It was a quite unusual game. Both teams had goals taken away on offsides calls. I think that the referee’s assistants have a very difficult task in making the offsides call,” said D’Arcy. “Basically they have to be looking in two places at the same time. From where I sit on the bench I probably have the worst view.”
In the closing moments of the game CCSU had another chance to score Beth Lloyd received a ball from Tregear following a cross—yet again, there was an offside call. The whistle was then blown calling an end to regulation time and declaring the CCSU victory.
“At this stage of the season the most important thing was that we collected three points for the win. That was our goal going into the game and the players and coaches were delighted with the result,” said D’Arcy.
CCSU enters the coming weekend with a game on Friday at 3 p.m. against Fairleigh Dickinson followed by the team’s final regular season match on Sunday at 1 p.m. against Sacred Heart.
