For the second straight year, the MAAC championship game took place in Hamden as the Quinnipiac Bobcats women’s soccer team defeated the Fairfield Stags 1-0 to claim the MAAC championship. Being in-state rivals fans travel well as the stands were filled with fans from both teams.
“Taking the emotion out of the game, and really just focusing on yourself and the ball, and what your players have to tell you is really all that matters and how you can really find success in the game,” sophomore midfielder Madison Alves said.
After the Bobcats’ loss to Penn State in the NCAA tournament, head coach Dave Clarke and his team’s goal was to retain and repeat.
“The mentality of this group was that they wanted to win and retain and repeat. Retain the league title and repeat as champions,” Clarke said. “That was the only motto, we never talked about anything other than retain and repeat all season.”
The Bobcats retained the league title finishing with a 9-0-1 record in conference and they repeated as champions with the win vs. Fairfield. The team’s next goal is to win an NCAA tournament game.
“We’ve always said we’re going to make the NCAA this time,” graduate defender Kayla Mingachos said. “We’re winning one game at least. It’s not over yet for us. We have at least a few more games in us.”
The Bobcats in their second straight MAAC championship game shut out their opponent again with their suffocating defense. Last year’s MAAC championship game was a win vs. Iona 4-0.
“Our backline is really solid,” Mingachos said. “We know we have one goal that’s not to concede a goal and we put our bodies online for each other and it shows we’re really solid back there.”
The Bobcats got the winning goal early in the game as they earned a corner within the first 30 seconds after a couple of bounces. Senior forward Courtney Chochol put the ball in the back of the net to give the Bobcats the early 1-0 lead.
The Bobcats seemed to have a pep in their step early in the game as they had another corner in the third minute that found the head of graduate student midfielder Markela Bjeleri but the ball went over the bar.
The Bobcats showed their stellar defense that allowed 0.94 goals a game as they swallowed all chances for the Stags as they only were able to have one shot on goal in the first half. In the sixth minute, the Stags had numbers rushing down the field. The ball found senior forward Elle Scott who had space for a shot but Mingachos came flying in and blocked Scott’s shot to keep the Bobcats in the lead.
The second half started with the Stags on the offensive side as they were pressuring the Bobcats as Quinnipiac did in the first half. The Stags had a chance to score a free kick in a favorable position that was crossed into the box but senior goalkeeper Sofia Lospinoso came off her line to punch the ball away. Lospinoso earned her eighth shutout in the most important game this season so far.
Chochol had a chance to double the score after Bjeleri was taken down in the box which granted a penalty in the 75th minute for the Bobcats. Chochol stepped up for the penalty but couldn’t find the back of the net as it rung off the post and across the goal line and then kicked out by a Stag.
In the final minutes when Fairfield was searching for the tying goal, the Bobcats knew how to handle the situation knowing how to time waste and persevering the win at whatever cost.
“We’ve worked on those scenarios,” Clarke said. “We work on being one nil up or one nil down, time-wasting and how to time waste, where to time waste, and who is, why we’re doing and I think we frustrated them.”
The Bobcats now have to wait until the NCAA selection show on Nov. 6 at 4:00 p.m. to know where their season will progress.
