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FARMVILLE – An electric four-minute stretch broke open a tight match on Sunday afternoon. The Longwood women’s soccer team pulled away from UMBC 4-1 to stay unbeaten to open the 2022 campaign.

Goals (Assists)

2’ – Longwood: Savannah Noll (Karleigh Minson)
8’ – UMBC: Delainey Varela-Keen (Lola Negrete)
53’ – Longwood: Megan Baker (Amanda Arnone)
56’ – Longwood: Catharine Forst
57’ – Longwood: Emma Jones

HOW IT HAPPENED:

With the score locked at one coming out of halftime, Longwood (2-0) came out with new life and new energy. The Lancers tilted the field toward the UMBC (0-1-1) goal, and Megan Baker paid it off on the 53rd minute. She headed home a wonderful cross from Amanda Arnone to put Longwood up 2-1 and unleash the Lancers.

Just a shade more than three minutes later, Catharine Forst curled home her second goal of the season with a darting shot from the top of the 18-yard box. Emma Jones followed with the first goal of her collegiate career. It was a rocket into the upper corner to extend the lead to 4-1 in the 57^th minute.

From that point, the Lancers controlled the pace of play to secure the win.

At the start of the game, Longwood struck first. Savannah Noll scored her first collegiate goal in the 2^nd minute with a shot that dipped under the cross bar from the right wing, with Karleigh Minson providing the assist. UMBC answered with Delainey Varela-Keen’s goal off a corner in the 8th minute.

WHAT THEY SAID:

“It felt amazing,” Megan Baker said about scoring her first goal as a Lancer. “Having my teammates there to celebrate with me, be a part of it and help me get to that point was amazing. I was looking at everybody and hearing everybody cheer, and I swear I blacked out. I had goosebumps. It was crazy.”

“After a choppy and frustrating first half, the team had an amazing response in the second half scoring three goals,” head coach Todd Dyer said. “We finally started to establish some possession, and once we got that breakthrough goal from Megan, I thought we gained a lot of confidence and really settled in. We also made some defensive adjustments in midfield at the half, and that helped us change the rhythm of the game as well. In the end, it was a convincing result and something to build on.”

“When we went in the locker room at halftime, we had a talk about how we needed to pick up the energy,” Baker said about the approach at halftime. “I think we came out with a lot of energy, and then having a goal scored helped boost that energy to keep going.”

“We’re getting there,” Baker said about the 2-0 start to the season and the team’s growth over the past three weeks. “We keep building off of each game, and we learn something new out of it. We learned a lot from the Richmond game, and we just learned a lot from this game as well. I think we keep building off of each game and getting a little better and working harder.”

Notes for Longwood women’s soccer:

Longwood leads the all-time series 5-2-2 since 2005, and the Lancers are unbeaten in Farmville against UMBC at 4-0-1.

Two of the four goal-scorers were freshman for the Lancers who tallied their first collegiate goals: Savannah Noll and Emma Jones.

Karleigh Minson, also a freshman picked up her first collegiate assist

The last time Longwood scored four goals in a match was October 16, 2021, when Longwood beat USC Upstate 5-0.

Catharine Forst scored for a second straight match, the second time in her career she has scored in back-to-back matches. She scored in back-to-back games last fall against Hampton (Sept. 28) and Gardner-Webb (Oct. 2).

The Lancers are halfway through a four-match homestand to open the 2022 campaign.

Up next for Longwood women’s soccer:

Longwood hosts Wofford on Friday, August 26. The match kicks off at 6 p.m., and it will be the culmination of the First Friday Back and the annual G.A.M.E.

For more about the team, click here.