Tobias Neto, Staff Writer

This past weekend, Utica College’s womens soccer team took on Elmira College and came out with a victory on the road. The team exploded in the second half with three goals to end up winning the game 4-1.

Since it was an Empire 8 Conference game, this means they are 1-1 in conference play. UC won its first contest of the season and saw its record change to 1-7 overall. Elmira’s record dropped to 0-6-1 and 0-1 in Conference play.

UC forward Xiomara Rodriguez reminisced about a game this year at SUNY Poly. A battle throughout the entire game that showed the strength between both teams to see who will pull out the win. This game endured full out determination and the scoreboard could not explain the effort put out by the players.

UC hasn’t lost to SUNY Poly in five years and trying to keep that streak alive is a task that sounds difficult because the other team is not trying to keep that tradition of losing.

“Coach told us to keep our heads up, ‘you girls played hard and put everything on the line to pull out a win. Unfortunately, you girls fell short,’” said Rodriguez.

Rodriguez was hurt after the game because the effort she put in, along with the rest of her teammates, felt like enough to come out with the victory.

Another game that brings an interesting story is the game at SUNY Potsdam. The team felt they came in with the wrong mentality. In the first half, they let up goals and were not playing hard on defense. They looked like they needed something to rejuvenate their energy in the second half and play better.

In the second half, UC shocked the other team with the tremendous fight to get the team back into the game. This was looking like the greatest comeback the soccer team has ever had until a late goal by Potsdam ended the game. The womens soccer team would end up losing 5-2.

“If we would’ve played the entire 90 minutes like we played in the second half, we would have come out with the win,” Rodriguez said.