The Ashland Women’s soccer team outplayed their opponents for ninety minutes. Unfortunately those ninety minutes came in the form of the two second halves in two 2-1 losses at Cedarville and to Ohio Dominican at Ferguson Field. 

Slow starts plagued the Eagles who fell behind 2-0 in each match before mounting a second half comeback that ultimately fell short.

The Eagles, who entered the week undefeated at 3-0, dropped their record to 3-2 overall and 0-1 in GLIAC play. 

Ashland traveled to Cedarville, Ohio to take on the Yellow Jackets of Cedarville University on September 16th. 

The game remained scoreless until the 39th minute when Cedarville forward Grace Mirorelli found an opening in the Eagle defense and blasted a shot from 15 yards out to put Cedarville on the board. The Yellow Jackets took a 1-0 advantage to the locker room. 

Miorelli wasn’t finished yet though. The sophomore put the game out reach in the 74th minute receiving a cross in the box and depositing into the back of net. 

Miorelli’s second goal of match pushed the Yellow Jacket’s lead to 2-0.

Ashland would mount a comeback effort. 

Just 68 seconds after the second of Miorelli’s pair of goals, Junior Krista Lewis sent a cross into the box that found the foot of Freshman Carson Jannsen who smashed home the goal. 

Jannsen’s first career goal cut the Ashland deficit in half to 2-1.

Despite outshooting the Yellow Jackets 6-5, and getting four corner kicks compared to Cedarville’s two in the second half, the Eagles got no closer on the night. 

The Eagles fell to 3-1 on the season following the 2-1 loss.

“You can’t have to try to comeback from two goal deficits against good teams, said head coach Danny Krispinsky. “We have to better from the get go.”

The Eagles returned home on September 21st for a date against the Ohio Dominican Panthers.  

With winds whipping at over 30 miles an hour at Ferguson Field for most of the match, Ashland was blown away in the first 19 minutes. 

Once again it was a single player doing the damage to the Eagles, this time it was Ohio Dominican forward Ashley Blake. 

Blake got the Panthers on the board in the seventh minute, burying a shot past Eagle goalie Karly Beuck to put Ohio Dominican up 1-0.

Just 12 minutes later Blake put the Panthers in the lead for good. 

The freshman stuffed home a rebound of the gloves of Beuck to push Ohio Dominican in front 2-0.

Ashland once again fought back in the second half. 

Just four minutes after the halftime break the Eagles cut the deficit in half. 

Junior Alexandra Koravik found a crease in the Panther defense and took advantage, sending a strike into the upper left corner of the net. 

Koravik’s goal put Ashland to within striking distance, just a goal down with nearly a full half remaining.

Despite getting to within a goal with 41 minutes of soccer remaining, Ashland could not fully close the gap. 

The Panthers held off the comeback attempt to win both team’s GLIAC opener 2-1.

Despite the blustery conditions that game took place under, Krispinsky made no excuses for his team.

 “We can’t look to the weather as a reason why we didn’t play well because they played in the same weather,” Krispinsky said. 

Rather, Krispinsky pointed to the sluggish start for AU’s troubles.

“We can’t throw a half away and expect to win games.”

Krispinsky added, “It has become a theme these last two games, that we have thrown away the first half and force ourselves to try to comeback out of a 2-0 deficit.” 

Up next for the Eagles will be GLIAC matchups against north division foes Northern Michigan on September 26th and Michigan Tech on September 28th at Ferguson Field.

For Coach Krispinsky the goal for the Eagles is to use the week of practice to improve.

“We have to train and prepare better and that’s on us as coaches. But we also our players to demand more of themselves.”