The Oswego State women’s soccer team had their first in-conference game against the SUNY Oneonta Red Dragons on Sep. 28. 

The first period kicked off and before you even knew it, the Red Dragons had a point on the board. The Lakers were kicking the ball down the field until a bad pass gave the Red Dragons an opportunity to score. The Red Dragons took the ball on a fast break down the field and found the net; capitalizing on a one-on-one opportunity against goalie Perri Anderson, less than three minutes into the game. 

Back-and-forth action ensued until Jackie Marquardt found a nice shot, only it being too low with the goalie saving the potential goal. The Lakers kept the pressure going however, as Amber McDermott fired off three shots, all deterred by the Red Dragons goalkeeper. 

Later the Red Dragons had a corner kick opportunity that paid a lot of favors for them as they found themselves up 2-0 20 minutes into the period. The Lakers had plenty of opportunities following this, with back-to-back corner kicks after the 25-minute mark. McDermott and Marquardt kept the Lakers in play with multiple shots coming from both players, but none of them found the goal as the Lakers went down 2-0 to end the first. 

The second period was a defensive masterclass, as neither team was able to get any offense going early. A Red Dragons corner kick just over the 60-minute mark gave them an opportunity to score off a volley, but Anderson was a stone wall and saved it. After some substitutions from the Lakers side, they were able to get a couple shots fired off; one from Brianna Winkler and the other from McDermott, but neither were able to find the net. The last shot of the game came from the Red Dragons side with less than a minute to go, but it did not find the net as Oneonta won, 2-0. 

The Lakers moved on to play another SUNYAC rival in the SUNY Canton Kangaroos on Oct. 2.

The Lakers came out swinging in this matchup, as they dominated ball possession early on in the first period. This paid dividends for the Lakers as a corner kick from Emma Rechtorovic led to a score from Marquardt off a volley, her second goal of the year.

Five minutes later, almost the same thing happened as another corner from Rechtorovic led to a shot from Marquardt, this time a little too high for the net. Not long after, Kaylee Elliot headed the ball towards Sabrina Schmitt who drove the ball down the field before finding the ball to the back of the net for a 2-0 Lakers lead. 

Less than two minutes later, the Lakers found themselves deep in Kangaroo territory. Rechtorovic drove the ball into the corner before firing off a tight pass to Elliot for her second goal of the game, 3-0 Lakers lead. The Lakers slowed down the scoring, but still applied pressure as they fired shot after shot. After a little over ten minutes, Marquardt was able to find Erika Yancey for her fourth goal of the season, giving the Lakers a 4-0 lead. The Kangaroos got outshot 6-1 in the final ten minutes of the period, but the Lakers did not score any more goals, as it was still 4-0 heading into the second.

The Lakers outshot the Kangaroos 14-0 in the second period as Oswego rang in shot-after-shot. However, the Kangaroos’ goalie was elite throughout the 45 minutes and the Lakers never found the net as they beat Canton 4-0. 

The Lakers move on to face SUNY Morrisville in Oswego’s annual Senior Day on Oct. 5 at 1 p.m.

Photo by: Oswego Athletics