The Boston University women’s soccer team ended its regular season home campaign victorious on Wednesday night, shutting out the College of the Holy Cross, 3-0, in the teams’ inaugural installment of the Turnpike Trophy.
The Terriers (8-5-3, 6-0-1 Patriot League) imposed themselves offensively right from the opening whistle, attacking a Holy Cross back line that has now allowed 25 goals.
Within 73 seconds, senior forward Jenna Fisher surged down the right side of the field, sending in a cross that initially fell onto the hands of Holy Cross (4-8-3, 1-4-2 Patriot League) goalkeeper Brooke Holle. A diving Holle could not maintain control however, and the loose ball fell onto the left foot of freshman midfielder Dorrie Varley-Barrett, who tapped it in from close range to give the Terriers the 1-0 lead.
Fisher was once again involved in a BU scoring opportunity just six minutes after its opening goal. She played a perfectly weighted through-ball to junior forward Erica Kosienski, but she was stopped in her tracks by Holle, who made a big save.
The closest opportunity the Crusaders had in the first half of play came in the 42nd minute. After an aerial ball took a favorable bounce in the direction of Holy Cross senior Annie Galvin, Galvin made her charge through Terrier territory. She was one-on-one with senior goalkeeper Alyssa Parisi, but her shot went right off Parisi’s chest and away from danger.
When the first half came to a close, the Terriers were the clearly dominant side, as they outshot the Crusaders 11-5 and took an astounding seven corner kicks.
Just when Holy Cross gained more possession time in the early stages of the second half, junior defender Rachel Bloznalis lined up a free kick 30 yards away from goal. Whether she meant to cross it or not is something only Bloznalis knows, but her effort found the top left corner of the goal, giving her team a much-needed 2-0 cushion.
The BU win was eventually sealed in the 84th minute when senior midfielder Rachel Blauner found freshman forward McKenna Doyle making a run in the box. The youngster sent a smooth shot into the top left corner, leaving Holle stunned.
Despite the scoreline, BU coach Nancy Feldman said she was impressed with Holy Cross’ performance in the game.
“They came out to play,” Feldman said. “I never felt like we had the match in hand. I felt we could’ve a little more. They did a pretty good job of taking us out of our flow and producing great counterattacks.”
Feldman added that she was proud of how her team approached the match, despite some worrying moments.
“We fought the whole match,” Feldman said. “We kept trying to come back to imprint our style, but we didn’t do it consistently. We would take two steps forward, and then a step back. If we don’t make a save down there by Alyssa Parisi, it’s 1-1, and the momentum shifts and now we’re in a dogfight. If Rachel Bloznalis doesn’t take it off of the goal line, it’s a whole different ballgame.”
Bloznalis turned in a stellar overall performance. If not for her defensive and offensive contributions, the outcome could have ended a bit differently.
Feldman had nothing but praise for Bloznalis’ ability to make game-changing plays from set-pieces and restarts.
“She’s fantastic on restarts — corner kicks service, restart service,” Feldman said. “I don’t think she was shooting at goal. Maybe she’d tell you differently, but she wants to put it in a place where the goalkeeper has to make a really tough decision and she wants to drive it and give our kids a chance to run onto balls.
“She’s a strong, physical defender and tactically really, really good,” Feldman added. “She and [senior defender] McKenzie [Hollenbaugh] have a really good partnership going. I can’t believe it’s only the first goal of her career. In my head, she scores a lot of goals, but she certainly helps create a lot of goals for us.”
