Fresh off a win in their first game of the season last week against Hudson Falls, the Amsterdam Lady Rams varsity soccer team looked to make it back to back wins against a Foothills Council north division opponent, but couldn’t get any momentum going in a 7-0 loss to the Schuylerville Lady Black Horses on Tuesday afternoon at Lynch Literacy Academy Field.
“After the first twelve minutes and forty eight seconds they (Schuylerville) had four goals,” Amsterdam coach Jessica Byerwalters said. “We came out scared.”
Amsterdam found itself constantly on the defensive early in the first half. Less than two minutes were gone the contest when Schuylerville forward Amy Moreau got behind the Amsterdam defense and fired a shot past the reach of AHS senior goalkeeper Victoria Barone-Lopez. Schuylerville senior Emily Vallee found herself in a similar situation less than three minutes later when she booted a close range shot across the mouth of the AHS goal and into the top right corner of the net for a 2-0 Schuylerville lead with 35:07 left in the half. Vallee got her second of the game at the 30:09 mark when she took a pass from Kaitlyn Congdon and drilled it into the back of the net for a 3-0 advantage. Moreau made it 4-0 with her second of the game with 27:13 left in the opening period as she kicked one into the far corner of the net barely eluding Barone-Lopez. Schuylerville’s Cassandra Cooper got her first goal at the 11:50 mark to complete the scoring in the first half with the Lady Black Horses up 5-0. Meanwhile, the Lady Rams offense was unable to respond with the team bottled up in their own end of the field trying to stop the Schuylerville attack.
“I decided to change our game plan and I’m regretting that,” Coach Byerwalters said. “As a team we came out complacent and we were playing scared.”
The second half was an improvement from the first with a lot of the credit to the Lady Rams goalkeeper Barone-Lopez, who faced a total of 26 shots in the first half, most of them at close range and on target. Barone Lopez finished the contest with 25 saves and literally defended every inch of the goal, colliding with the goalpost at least twice in an effort to stop a shot.
“Victoria faced 32 shots on goal and made 25 saves,” Coach Byerwalters said. “To have seven goals and 25 saves, those are legitimate numbers.”
Amsterdam’s Haley Madej and Lydia Iorio accounted for Amsterdam’s three shots on goal in the second half, but Schuylerville goalkeeper Caitlyn Kelleher turned them aside to earn the shutout in goal. Vallee scored her third goal of the game with 32:17 left to play on a penalty kick after a hand ball foul was called on Amsterdam. Cooper collected her second of the game with only 15 second left to round off the scoring. Cooper’s shot came on a rebound after a remarkable close range stop by Barone-Lopez turned away her first try.
The Lady Rams won’t have time to dwell on their first loss of the season. Amsterdam (1-1) travels to Johnstown High School for a game with the Lady Bills Wednesday night at 7pm.
“We will forget about this game and move on to tomorrow,” Coach Byerwalters said. “I stress playing as a team even when we are at our worse.”
