Army Unable to Break Scoreless Draw with Air Force

Friday, September 7

West Point

7:30 PM

Army West Point

3-1-3

Air Force

1-2-1

OT 3

OT 4

Air Force

ARMY

Army Unable to Break Scoreless Draw with Air Force

September 07, 2018 | Women's Soccer

Box Score

WEST POINT, N.Y. – Despite outshooting service-academy rival Air Force 23-8, the Army West Point women's soccer team was forced to settle for a scoreless draw Friday evening at Malek Stadium at Clinton Field.

The draw pushes Army's record to 3-1-3 on the season and 1-0-2 at home, its best start to a season at Clinton Field since 2011 when the Black Knights opened the home slate with a 3-0-2 mark.

Army's offense clicked from the opening whistle as five Cadets tallied multiple shots in the contest. The home side's attacking unit created multiple chances that forced the Falcons' goalkeeper Jennifer Hiddink to make nine stops through 110 minutes of action.

Seniors Lauryn Westman and Sydney Witham, along with freshman Trinity Garay, each tallied a game-high five shots with Witham placing four on target. Sophomore Erynn Johns (three shots) and rookie Kalie Rosenberger (two shots) added multi-shot performances. Sophomore goalkeeper Sydney Cassalia needed to make four saves in another shutout effort, her fourth of the season and 10th clean sheet of her career.

HOW IT HAPPENED
FIRST HALF

Cassalia was tested early in the contest, needing to make two quality stops in the first 130 seconds of the game.
Johns had Army's best look at the Air Force goal in the first 45 minutes, after a through ball from Witham sent her into the right side of the box. Her shot from 16-yards out was aimed for the far post, but missed wide of the target.

SECOND HALF

Army's offense picked up in the second half, posting a season-high 14 shots in the period.
The best chance of the night for either team came with 3:40 remaining in the half when the Black Knights generated a trio of quality chances inside the box.
Garay fired the first shot after a Westman cross deflected to her at the penalty marker which was blocked away by an Air Force defender. The ball was directed toward Simone Gardner who forced Hiddink to make a sprawling save before Emily Torres gave her best effort at the go-ahead goal.

OVERTIME

After neither side managed a shot through the first overtime period, Army compiled three attempts in the final 10 minutes of the match.
Witham threaded another through ball past the Falcons' back line for Garay, but Haddink was up for the task.
Twenty seconds later, the visitors went on the offensive and nearly won the game on a shot off the left foot of Kaitlyn Cook that rang off the crossbar.
With just less than three-and-a-half minutes remaining in the game, Garay nutmegged her defender with a back heel pass down the right sideline to free Gardner for a run. Her cross found Westman just inside the top of the box for a one-timed shot that missed inches wide of the right post.

ARMY HIGHLIGHTS AND GAME NOTES

The Black Knights recorded their third-straight shutout over a service-academy rival for the first time in program history.
This was Army's first home game against Air Force since 2006.
The Black Knights are now 8-6-2 in the all-time series with the Falcons, including a 2-0-1 mark at home.
Army's only other tie against Air Force came on Sept. 14, 2007, when the two sides battled to a scoreless draw at the Military Academies Classic in St. Louis, Mo.
Army's 23 shots was its most since Sept. 28, 2016, in a 1-1 draw with Holy Cross.
Cassalia has yet to allow a goal against another service academy through three games.
The Omaha, Neb., native posted back-to-back shutouts for just the second time in her career and first since opening last season with a pair of clean sheets against Iona (Aug. 18, 2017) and UMass Lowell (Aug. 20, 2017).
She currently leads the Patriot League in minutes played (690:00), goals-against average (0.522), save percentage (0.911) and shutouts (four).
Witham eclipsed the 5,000 minute mark for her career in the first half of tonight's contest.

UP NEXT