Opportunities abounded for the Allen Community College women’s soccer team to pick up their third win of the season but none of them were grabbed as the Lady Devils fell late to Ottawa JV 1-0.
Despite the stranglehold that freshman keeper Morgan Cossairt and the defense kept on Ottawa for 89 minutes, it wasn’t enough as a last-minute goal from Ottawa brought Allen County’s record down to an even 2-2 on the season.
“I was really proud of the defense,” said coach Jeremy McGinnis. “In no other sport can you completely dominate and still lose. We definitely did that. We’re still trying to find some chemistry and cohesiveness in our attack.”
More often than not, the Lady Devils were the aggressors but shot after shot would either be blocked, fly over the goal or hit a crossbar. Mentally, Allen County’s offense just wasn’t able to find themselves.
“So much of the game is in their head,” McGinnis said. “They’re not mentally there, they’re just kind of checked out and they end up trying to do too much or they don’t have the confidence in themselves to do things when they need to do things. We’re hoping that we can find some solutions here in the next few days and change that.”
McGinnis was relieved that the game was only an exhibition and not a conference game as it will allow him to use it as a learning experience without having to reckon with the loss come postseason.
“Luckily that doesn’t count for our conference,” McGinnis said. “We don’t play until next Tuesday so hopefully we’ll be able to find some answers in practice.”
With the holiday weekend coming up, McGinnis doesn’t foresee much downtime for his team as they prepare for their first conference game at Cowley County.
“It’s going to take a little more work and a little more time than I wanted,” McGinnis said. “I was hoping to give them some time off but it’s looking like we’re not going to be able to do that now.”
After Cowley, the Lady Devils will return home on Saturday to take on Kansas City Community College.
Lady Devils fall late in defensive battle
