“I knew that I had a lane,” Alexa Restante said. “Emma [Geyer] played me the ball. I took a touch around the defender and saw it was just me and the goalie. I just kinda shot the ball and hoped for the best.”
This remains how Alexa Restante illustrates her go-ahead goal, 48 seconds into last weekend’s Oswego State women’s soccer matchup against SUNY Cortland. Now that they have clinched a seat in the playoffs, hoping for the best is not exactly how they are approaching the postseason.
Entering last weekend’s matchup with a 6-5-3 overall record, Oswego State women’s soccer knew what they had to achieve to seal a playoff berth. They knew they had to win and they proved they were ready. They went up 1-0 on Restante’s first minute goal, only to double it 24 minutes later on Restante’s second goal of the match. The Lakers held on in the second half for an impressive playoff-clinching home victory by the score of 2-1. Reflecting on the win, Restante is excited for the opportunity the postseason presents.
“It feels really good, we’ve all been really working hard for this all season. As a team, we’re really excited to show everybody what we can do this year,” Restante said. “Our goal as a team this year, was first to make it into the playoffs again this year. Then we want to try to make it to the finals this year, we’re trying to make it to the finals and win it all, that would be great.”
Last weekend’s bout against SUNY Cortland reaffirmed Oswego State’s belief that they could contend during the postseason, yet it should not be a surprise to anyone. The team entered the matchup taking seven points out of their three games prior, making their victory against SUNY Cortland their third in a row.
“I think as a team, we learned that if we put our minds and hearts to the game, we’re able to come out and score quick and play strong for the entire game,” Restante said. “We’re a team nobody should look down on, we’ve been playing well the past few weeks and we’re not done yet.”
Oswego State’s ability to build on the growth of last year has depended on various factors.
“This year we had a lot of returners, we didn’t lose many starters which helped,” Restante said. “We had great chemistry as a team on and off the field, our coaching staff is great and they push us to be our best every single day.”
Restante, along with head coach Brian McGrane, want to continue this relationship by extending their season as long as possible. With their first playoff matchup on Saturday against SUNY Plattsburgh, this endeavor continues only so long as they do, as it is now crunch time, you win or you go home.
While they only lead their opponents this year by .18 in goals per game, Oswego State has nearly 50 more shots than their opponents outright and 25 more than them on goal. While the opportunities have been there, the team has not always been able to connect and will need to do so in order to advance.
Looking forward to SUNY Plattsburgh, McGrane knows precisely what his team needs to accomplish in order to come out on top.
“We just have to be a little more composed,” McGrane said. “Obviously we’ve seen them play, the stakes are just a little higher with advancing with a win or a loss and you go home.”
McGrane acknowledges what went wrong in a 1-0 loss during the first matchup against SUNY Plattsburgh and fixing those mistakes will prove imperative if the Lakers are to win on Saturday. McGrane knows this as well.
“I thought the first time we played them, it was a fairly even match,” McGrane said. “We made just one mistake late where we didn’t double a corner kick, we didn’t send two out, we sent one and they were able to hit one on target. There’s a few players that we have to key in on that really keep Plattsburgh motivated, if we can limit touches on certain players I think we have a really good shot.”
“We’re working on our game and looking at how we played them last time. Working on playing as a team and playing the way we know we can,” Restante said.
Entering this year, Oswego State women’s soccer knew that in order to succeed, playing the way they knew they could glistened with importance. Winning three out of their last five regular season games, pieces appear to be falling into place with this team, at the opportune moment.
Provided the context of their season to this point and the knowledge that they have the potential to achieve their season goal, continues to only amplify the support behind this team.
While the countdown to Saturday’s 1 p.m. matchup against SUNY Plattsburgh continues to dwindle down, the campus excitement steadily grows. Knowing the excitement is justified, however, remains evident to any in attendance.
