Renaissance Drops McCann Tech Girls

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The McCann Tech girls soccer team lost to Renaissance, 2-1, Tuesday afternoon due to a crucial second-half penalty call and many missed opportunities.

The Hornets certainly controlled the tempo of the game, out-shooting Renaissance and offensively moving the ball up the field throughout both halves. They had many scoring opportunities that they just couldn’t quite capitalize on, besides their lone goal scored by freshman Amy Dowling.

Dowling opened the scoring in the first half from an outside cross from Jordon Budaj, 20 minutes into the game.

“It was great; I was so close to scoring in our last game and I finally put one in today,” Dowling said about her first goal of her varsity career.

Shortly after Dowling’s goal, Renaissance pulled one away from a scramble in front of the net to tie the game 1-1.

The Hornets had a chance to take the lead in the end of the first half when Renaissance’s goalie came off her line; McCann senior Alexa Andrews made a quick move by her and crossed the ball in front of the net to freshman Julia Esoldi, who just missed her chance to put the ball in the back of the net.

The score remained tied at the end of the first half.

McCann come out eager in the second half to put the game away; again out-shooting Renaissance, but the Renaissance goalie was on top of her game; saving every shot that came at her.

With 12 minutes remaining, McCann was whistled for a foul in the box, putting Renaissance on the penalty kick line. The shot was low and to the left corner, just out of Alanza Quinones’ reach and putting Renaissance up 2-1.

“Not much you can do about a tough call like that,” coach Mike Dowling said. “We had a lot of scoring opportunities after that, but we just couldn’t finish.”

Although the Hornets walked away with a loss, their offensive game looked solid; they moved the ball up the field and had a lot of nice crosses from the outside. Dowling hopes to work on finishing those shots that the Hornets didn’t on Tuesday.

“We’re young, a lot of freshman and only two seniors,” he said. “Give us time to grow, we’ll be good.”

McCann will travel to Putnam Friday afternoon, with hopes to put those missed opportunities in the back of the net.