BRUNSWICK — A 6-0 defeat always stings, but University of Maine at Farmington women’s soccer coach Molly Wilkie looks at the Beavers’ lopsided loss Wednesday to Bowdoin College in a different light.
Wilkie knew what her Beavers were up against when they took on the Polar Bears, who are a skilled team and feel right at home on their own turf.
“We play these games to get better,” Wilkie said. “We know they are a real high-caliber team. We know going in it is going to be a tough game and we have things that we want to work on, and that’s how we get better.
“I know now, a little better, what we need to work on. I thought we did what we could do.
“They were good. I thought they are just really organized. They are all very athletic, technical players. They are very deep. I thought they were a good quality team.”
Things got out of hand for UMF (5-5-0) in the first half when the Polar Bears (7-2-0) easily scored five goals.
Bowdoin gave UMF goalie Kiana Thompson fits throughout the game. Morgen Gallagher led off the scoring with her goal at 9:46 into the game. The onslaught continued when she scored her second goal at 27:46. Talia Missan, Kate Rusk-Kosa and Kate Morrison followed along, each punching in a goal.
But the Polar Bears’ scorers had help, with assists going to Julia Patterson (two), Anna Mellman (2) and Julia Bottone.
With a five-goal lead in front of the Polar Bears, they played keep-away with the Beavers in the second half and still scored a goal. Julia Bottone dropped one in the net on a Lauren McLaughlin assist.
“We are still working through a lot of stuff,” Bowdoin coach Brianne Weaver said. “We have a pretty young team…so we never take any game for granted.
“We got off to a little bit of a slow start in warm-ups and everything so we just wanted to see what we could do.
I think our field gives us a bit of an advantage in this type of game. We have a very large field and we able to play our style pretty well. So we don’t come in expecting anything. We know we have to play very hard.
And the Polar Bears did just that.
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