ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's soccer team turned a dynamic well-rounded performance on Saturday night as the Midshipmen dominated their service academy rival, the Army Black Knights, in the schools' annual Star Match by a score of 3-1.
Playing in front of a loud and passionate home crowd at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility, the Mids (9-5-2, 4-2-1 PL) received goals from a trio of talented underclassmen as Alexa Riddle led off the scoring in the first half before Amanda Graziano and Katie Herrmann added markers in the second half to allow the hosts to knock off the Black Knights (5-7-3, 2-3-2 PL).
"This is one of the most historic rivalries in college sports," remarked head coach Carin Gabarra. "This was so much fun after all that we went through the last year. We're super appreciative to our home crowd; I can't say enough about the support that we got from our community, Midshipmen, faculty and families. I thought we played some really good soccer tonight. Beating Army is always a goal for us.
"We came out ready to play. We've been approaching the last five games, one game at a time. It was hard to keep our team grounded and focused with a tough midweek game at American because we knew Army was coming. We didn't get to play Army last year so that added a little more excitement to tonight's game; we had two classes that had never played in a Star Game before. This is such an important game for our program, our alumni and everyone in the Navy and Marine Corps all over the world that tune into this game. I'm glad we played the way we did tonight."
Dealing with occasional bouts of heavy rain during the first half and gusty winds throughout the contest, the host Mids started the action out fast as Jenna Daunt and Riddle tested the Black Knights' goalkeeper Sage Strohman with shots on goal in the opening 10 minutes of the game. Navy's goalie Mattie Gallagher also denied Army's first attempt on goal as she dove off her line to snag a Lauren Drysdale header in the 12th minute. To the delight of the Mids' home crowd, Navy's third shot on goal found the back of the net as Riddle received a pass from Carolyn Mang and sprinted up the right wing before ripping a shot from the just inside the 18-yard box up into the far side upper-90 at 14:03.
Navy nearly increased its lead to 2-0 in the 19th minute when Victoria Tran took a short corner and quickly lofted a deep cross to the back of the six-yard box where Tatum Kelly connected on a header shot that bounded just inches wide of the goal.
Gallagher helped her squad take a one-goal advantage into the halftime intermission as she gathered each of the Black Knights' next two shots on goal in the ensuing 30-plus minutes. As a team, Army held an 8-6 margin in total shots for the first half.
Coming out of the locker room up 1-0, Navy immediately went to work looking for an insurance goal. Tran had the first high leverage scoring opportunity for the Mids as she dribbled through the midfield, cut around a pair of Black Knight defenders and took aim on net though her shot was deflected wide of the target. On the subsequent corner kick, Graziano took advantage of the heavy wind and curled her kick over Strohman and into the far side-netting at 54:51.
Up 2-0, Navy quickly made it 3-0 as less than three minutes later at 57:21 when Jeana Freeman sent a cross into the box from the left wing and Daunt flicked a header on further towards goal where Herrmann sprinted onto the bouncing ball and one-timed a shot past Strohman.
The Mids nearly made it 4-0 when Freeman played another dangerous ball into the box in the 69th minute. Molly Gillcrist met that cross and had her initial shot blocked before Caitlin Doran pushed her attempt wide as Strohman pressured her.
Army finally got on the scoreboard at 70:49 when Trinity Garay gathered a rebound of a Kaelan Bradley shot that ricocheted off the crossbar and put the comebacker into the back of the net.
The game stayed at that 3-1 margin for the final 19-plus minutes as Navy celebrated its third straight Star Game victory over Army and 15th all-time in 27 Star Game tilts.
For the contest, Navy outshot Army, 13-12 as both teams recorded five shots on goal. Gallagher finished with four saves in goal for the Mids.
"I'm so happy for our seniors. They didn't get a game against Army last year." said Gabarra. "This season has been hard for us. It was a difficult turnaround early on after playing 11 games in the spring and coming right back and jumping into a 20-game fall season. It was tiring and hard to get motivated at first, but we've continued fighting. The seniors really deserve this win. They've exhibited tremendous leadership both on and off the field. They've helped us cultivate our depth. We're playing a lot of players and in each case, those players raise our total level of play and energy consistently. That's becoming a great trait and characteristic of this team. Kudos to our seniors for helping us pull that all together. They bring a lot of positivity and a lot of energy. We're really hitting our stride as we go down the back stretch of this season."
Navy has a quick turnaround as the Mids will play a non-conference road game at Howard on Monday night. Kickoff between the Mids and Bison is set for 7 p.m. in Washington, D.C.
Saturday night's contest was the seventh Army-Navy matchup as part of the 2021-22 Star Series presented by USAA. The Naval Academy currently holds a 6-1 advantage over Army.
