By Laura Soukkavong –
WORCESTER, Mass. — There are victories that reveal themselves through the final score, and there are victories that say something about how a team responds when a game begins moving against it. For the WPI women’s soccer team, Sunday afternoon’s 3-1 victory over Cortland offered a little of both.
The Engineers needed their first win of the season after opening with consecutive losses. They also needed to show that the difficult beginning would not define them. On the final stop of a two-game trip through Central New York, WPI received goals from Katie Adiletta, Tiziri Tizi-Ougdal and Abigail Johnson, along with eight saves from goalkeeper Ayla Verheul, to leave Holloway Field with something more important than an improved record.
WPI left with evidence that it could answer.
The Engineers improved to 1-2 after beginning the weekend with a 2-1 loss at Ithaca. Cortland entered Sunday unbeaten through its first two games, but the Red Dragons fell to 2-1 after WPI established a two-goal first-half advantage and then responded almost immediately when Cortland threatened to change the direction of the match early in the second half.
That response may have been the most revealing sequence of the afternoon.
WPI had controlled the scoreboard for most of the opening half, but Cortland needed only 1 minute 47 seconds after halftime to make it a one-goal game. Cassia Schuyler scored at 46:47, and suddenly the comfortable 2-0 advantage the Engineers had taken into halftime had become 2-1.
Less than two minutes later, WPI had its answer.
Jess English started the play with a long clearing pass from the left side. Maeve Steckley won the race to the ball, moved down the left flank and delivered a cross into the penalty area. Abigail Johnson took a touch to beat goalkeeper Olivia Rouse and finished into the left side of the net at 48:44.
In a span of 1 minute 57 seconds, the complexion of the match had changed twice.
Cortland had created the possibility of a comeback. WPI had taken it away.
That is the kind of sequence that matters for a team trying to establish itself early in a season. The Engineers did not have the luxury of simply protecting their lead after Cortland scored. Momentum had shifted toward the Red Dragons, and WPI responded by attacking and restoring the two-goal advantage before Cortland could build upon its goal.
Johnson’s goal was the finish, but Steckley had again been at the center of the opportunity. Her work on the left side was an important part of WPI’s attack throughout the afternoon, and she finished with a team-high five shots, including two on goal.
Steckley had also helped create WPI’s opening goal.
In the 14th minute, Steckley disrupted a pass heading back toward the Cortland goal and attacked down the left side. Her shot from a difficult angle struck the left post, but Katie Adiletta was arriving in the box. Adiletta collected the rebound and finished into the left side at 13:34 to give WPI a 1-0 advantage.
The play demonstrated the value of pressure even when the initial attempt does not produce the goal. Steckley’s shot did not go into the net, but it forced the situation that Adiletta converted. Adiletta’s positioning ensured the opportunity did not disappear when the ball came off the post.
WPI added another goal in the 39th minute, this time from a set piece.
Following a corner kick, Tiziri Tizi-Ougdal headed the initial service off the crossbar. The ball remained available, and Tiziri Tizi-Ougdal quickly recovered before heading the rebound into the net at 38:16 for her first goal of the season.
The Engineers had built a 2-0 advantage, but the final minutes before halftime offered another moment that would become significant.
Cortland threatened to cut the deficit before the break, and Emma Fitzgerald prevented it. Fitzgerald cleared a shot off the goal line at 41:11 for a team save, preserving the two-goal margin that WPI carried into halftime.
Without that defensive play, the second half could have started under considerably different circumstances.
Instead of Cortland beginning the half down one goal, the Red Dragons still needed two. Even after Cassia Schuyler scored at 46:47, WPI remained in front. Abigail Johnson’s goal less than two minutes later restored the advantage Fitzgerald had helped preserve late in the first half.
Soccer matches can turn on those moments that do not always appear as prominently as goals in the final account. Fitzgerald’s clearance was one of them.
So was the work of Ayla Verheul.
Cortland finished with 20 shots compared with WPI’s 14, and the Red Dragons forced Verheul to make eight saves. Five of those saves came during the second half, when Cortland was trying to find another way back into the game.
It never did.
After Abigail Johnson made it 3-1, Verheul and the WPI defense kept the Red Dragons from scoring again. Cortland had the greater overall shot total, but WPI had already done the damage that mattered most.
The numbers provide an interesting picture of the afternoon. Cortland held a 20-14 advantage in shots, but WPI generated six corner kicks compared with three for the Red Dragons. Olivia Rouse made six saves for Cortland, while Ayla Verheul made eight for the Engineers.
WPI did not need to dominate every statistical category to control the result.
Katie Adiletta finished with three shots. Abigail Johnson had two, both on goal. Delaney Mohl and Tiziri Tizi-Ougdal each provided a shot on goal off the bench, while Maeve Steckley’s five attempts gave WPI a consistent attacking presence.
More important was how those opportunities were distributed across the match.
The Engineers scored early enough to establish themselves, added another before halftime and then produced their third goal precisely when Cortland had given itself reason to believe the game was turning.
For a team still searching for its first victory, that sequence carries meaning.
An 0-2 beginning can make every difficult moment in the next game feel larger. A lead can become something to protect rather than something from which to continue playing. One opposing goal can create uncertainty, particularly when it arrives immediately after halftime.
WPI did not allow Sunday’s match to become that kind of game.
The Engineers had already experienced disappointment on the trip after falling 2-1 at Ithaca. Sunday presented the opportunity to return home either 0-3 or with a victory that could change the feel of the opening week.
They chose the latter through timely finishing, an important goal-line clearance, strong goalkeeping and an immediate response when Cortland made its strongest push.
The schedule does not provide much time to enjoy it.
WPI returns home Tuesday at 7 p.m. to host No. 22 Amherst, presenting the Engineers with another challenge only two days after securing their first victory. Cortland will have more time before returning to action Saturday, Sept. 12, when the Red Dragons host Penn State Harrisburg at 6 p.m.
For WPI, Sunday was not a declaration about what the season will become. Three games are far too few for that.
But early seasons are built from evidence, and the Engineers finally have some favorable evidence of their own.
They know they can score first. They know they can create goals in different ways. They know Ayla Verheul can withstand sustained pressure in goal. They know their defense can produce an emergency clearance when an opponent appears ready to score.
And now they know something else.
When an opponent scores and threatens to take control of the afternoon, WPI can answer before the game gets away.
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