Dickinson Women’s soccer beat Hood College Saturday 1-0 to improve their record to 3-0. The Red Devils have yet to concede a goal this season, starting the year with three consecutive clean sheets. 

The Red Devils were in charge throughout, controlling the game’s flow and tempo. They always seemed lively, especially in the first half, but they had trouble breaking down Hood’s defense and making the final ball as they got close to the goal. The best chance of the first half came in the thirty fourth minute off a great ball from Macey Mento that was headed on target by Lily Schmitt. The shot forced a brilliant reaction save from the Hood Goalkeeper, Gabi Dolan, who was able to tip the ball over the bar. Mento and Schmitt, playing on the wings on either side, both had excellent games.  Always running up and down their respective wings, both showed great work rates. Mento and Schmitt had both offensive and defensive duties to tend to and impressively, did both very well. Coach Ted Zingman spoke positively about the team’s performance. He states, “they [Mento and Schmitt] were playing on the flanks. They have a lot of responsibilities to run on their sides. They are two of our fittest players and need to be for the roles they play. They attacked but also had a lot of work to do defensively and I thought they did it brilliantly.” 

Despite their good play and their eleven first half shots, at halftime, the Dickinson women found themselves tied 0-0.  

During the second half, the Dickinson women did a lot of attacking but were not able to find the back of the net. Chances kept coming for Dickinson. In the sixtieth minute following great work and a great pass from Sophia Elguera, Emma Cooney found herself one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Cooney’s shot just drifted wide. Cooney was involved in most of Dickinson’s attacks. Cooney constantly pressed high and put aggressive pressure on Hood’s defenders when they had the ball.  Cooney played a few very tantalizing balls that were so close to turning into assists. “We love getting Emma involved in the attack. She is a very aggressive player and it’s great to see her attack the space the defenders give her and play those dangerous through balls.” 

Finally, in the seventy second minute, Dickinson scored. The ball was played in front of the goal on one of the home team’s ten corner kicks of the game. It bounced around the box and captain Charlotte Glancey was the first to react, sneaking the ball into the bottom left corner to give the   Red Devils the lead. Glancey, a Dickinson captain, plays such a vital role on the team. She served as the middle center back in a strong three center back lineup, the anchor at the back. Throughout the game, Glancey was always in control whenever Hood had forward runs or played attacking balls. Glancey deserved to be considered player of the match, capping off her strong performance with the goal.  

Coach Zingman puts a large focus on defense. It has paid off so far with three clean sheets in three games. After the game he said, “we are a defense-first team. That’s our focus, we try to be very clean and very solid all across, especially the back line. We trust all three of them. All have been starting and playing a lot of minutes since 2019.”  

This was really a team victory. All 18 players who played contributed to the win for the Red Devils. Getting contributions from many players is a big point of emphasis for the Red Devils. Zingman said, “we say all the time that everyone on the sideline has to be ready to go and contribute when they get called. We don’t go in with a  specific plan on who will get subbed on. We read the game and put on who we think will make the biggest impact. I give the players a lot of credit, they have been very strong mentally to always be ready to come in and make a difference.” Coach Zingman clearly has faith in his whole team.  

The Red Devils won despite their star striker and captain, Meg Tate, being unavailable. The players were able to fill the void left by her absence. Zingman said, “Meg is an amazing player and she really impacts our attack but we feel like we have so many strong pieces to cover for her not being able to play.”  

It was clear that the team has formed a strong bond. In the pregame huddle, following the goal when the whole team swarmed Charlotte Glancey, and during Coach Zingman’s post game speech, you could tell this is a tight knit group. Zingman said, “having a strong team bond is really important to us. The players worked really hard in preseason to create the strong bond that we feel now. It’s important to have strong bonds off the field and it definitely leads to better play on the field.”