In a lively back and forth game on Saturday, Sept. 13, the Emerson women’s soccer team tied 1-1 against the Roger Williams Hawks at their second home game of the season.
The Lions started their season with two wins against Husson and Westfield State in the Colby-Sawyer Kick-Off Classic on Aug. 29. After tying Suffolk in their home-opener on Sept. 6, Emerson lost to Endicott last week 1-0.
While Emerson dominated the field for most of Saturday’s game, the Lions’ tying goal came in the last three minutes of the game from sophomore midfielder Kelsey Yoshikawa off a cross from the left.
Roger Williams was the aggressor for the first 30 minutes of the game, with their lone goal being scored at the 30-minute mark of the first half. After they found themselves in an early deficit, Emerson quickly picked up the pace and attacked the goal. Near the end of the first half, the Lions attacked the box and got the ball in the back of the net off a cross—the goal was quickly called offside, but the Lions kept the ball up the field until the half.
Healey Walker, the Lions’ goalkeeper for the second half of the game, credited the team’s halftime talk and warm-up for refocusing the players to “play their way” for the rest of the game.
“In the first half, we played more in the back,” Walker said in a post-game interview. “Our goal [coming out of halftime] was to move the ball further up the field and possess in their half and continue to play our way and stay composed in front of the goal.”
Emerson came out strong in the second half, keeping the ball on the offensive side of the field for most of the second period. The Hawks had no shots during the second half and largely stayed in their defensive half to fend off the Lions’ attacks.
In the first fifteen minutes of the half, Emerson had three shots either saved by the keeper or veering just over. The crowd of a few dozen at Rotch Field fed off the energy of these plays, starting a “Let’s go, Emerson” chant after another near-goal for the Lions.
The game got more aggressive as time ticked by, with the Lions down 1-0. Roger Williams and Emerson exchanged fouls in the second half, with a yellow card being given to the Hawks for stopping an advancement up the field.
In the last five minutes of the game, the fans could feel an Emerson goal coming. After keeping the ball in Roger Williams’ box for multiple minutes, Yoshikawa scored the tying goal. Cheers erupted as the players celebrated and reset for kick off. The Lions quickly took the ball up the field once more, but time elapsed before they could get another shot off.
Head coach David Suvak said he was with the performance as it prepares them for the rest of the season.
“I’m not upset we came up short, but I think we had our chances to win that game,” Suvak said in an interview with The Beacon. “If I reflect back on the last two games, we were working on things to improve from those performances, and they executed very, very well today.”
The Lions faced Amherst Wednesday night, where they lost 2-0 to the nationally-ranked Mammoths.
