East Carolina University
Cincinnati
East Carolina Suffers 3-0 Setback to Cincinnati
October 03, 2014 | Soccer
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina soccer team dropped its second American Athletic Conference match of the season, 3-0, to Cincinnati Friday night at Johnson Soccer Stadium.
"Today was not a good day for," head coach Rob Donnenwirth said. "We came up against a really good team and we knew they were going to be good, but we just were not there at the start. We were waiting for someone to take some leadership out there and it just didn't happen."
Cincinnati (8-3-2, 2-1-0 American) began the night with a flurry of aggressive offensive tactics and used crisp passing to put the Pirate defense on its heels. The Bearcats were forced into five offsides calls in the first half, but broke through in the 31st minute when Jaycie Brown sent a feed through the center of the defense that found Julie Gavorski, who chipped a shot over a charging ECU goalkeeper, Erika Lenns, and into the net for the first goal of the night.
Just over eight minutes later, the Bearcats struck again when Vanessa Gilles headed home the team's seventh corner kick of the half to put Cincinnati ahead, 2-0 - a lead it would take into the halftime locker rooms.
East Carolina (7-4-1, 1-2-0 American) came out with a little more intensity in the second half, but the Bearcats continued to control possession and keep the Pirates in a defensive scheme. Nearly halfway through the second period, Cincinnati scored its third and final goal of the night on a cross to the center of the box when Jae Atkinson found Taylor Jackson who hammered a shot past Lenns to increase the lead to 3-0.
The Pirates pushed forward in the waning minutes of the match and put several shots on goal, including a pair of valiant attempts by freshman Danielle Eule, but Bearcats goalkeeper Natalie Smith remained rock solid and kept ECU off the scoreboard with a four-save shutout.
"I thought our second half was slightly better," Donnenwirth said. "We changed systems ofplay to try and inject something in them."
Cincinnati outshot East Carolina 10-6 overall and 8-4 in shots on goal, and possessed a 9-3 advantage in corner kick chances on the night.
Lenns made five saves in the match while Eule's two shots led all Pirate players. Junior Kendall Frey and sophomore Jenna Geist each played 90 minutes and recorded one shot on goal apiece.
Undefeated with a 4-0-1 record on the road this season, East Carolina will have a six-day break between matches before embarking on its first conference road trip of the year when it travels to Tulsa next Thursday, Oct. 9 and Memphis on Sunday, Oct. 12.
