Women's Soccer: Knights Cage Cougars With 4-1 Victory

By Billy Owens 

BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. - CCBC Essex women's soccer bounced back from a tough one-goal loss to Harcum College last week with a strong 4-1 win over Frederick Community College at CCBC Essex Stadium Tuesday evening.

The contest between the two Maryland Juco Conference teams was dominated early by the Knights (2-2-0), as sophomore midfielder Bailey D'Amico (Perry Hall) found the back of the net off an assist by freshman forward Taylor West (North Point) just 44 seconds into play.

Essex's offensive strategy focused on strong short passes to maintain possession on Frederick's side of the field and create more scoring opportunities.

Essex attempted seven shots in each half for a total of 14, while Frederick (0-1-0) only attempted six the entire evening.

"We played a couple long balls over top, the girls got onto them, [and] we scored," head coach Joe Fiedler said. "We gave ourselves a cushion and we defended well."

The Knights also prevented the Cougars from capitalizing on any of their five corner kicks, which all came in the first half.

Freshman goalkeeper Peyton Apruzzese (Severna Park) stopped all three of the Cougars' shots on goal in the half.

Essex added to its lead twice in the later stages of the first half as freshman forward Mikayla Boyle (Eastern Technical) scored an unassisted goal in the 25th minute and off an assist by freshman defender Josephine Eskey (Loch Raven) in the 31st minute.

The Knights struck quickly again in the second half as D'Amico nailed her second goal of the evening just two minutes into the period.

Essex continued to dominate possession for most of the half, but were sometimes hampered by bad turnovers and clear attempts in their defensive zone.

Frederick only managed to take advantage of these opportunities once, with freshman midfielder Madison Sorrell beating Apruzzese in the 58th minute to end the shutout.

The Knights kept applying offensive pressure for the remainder of the evening and held on for the 4-1 win.

"The girls wanted the ball, [and] they did well," Fiedler said. "I thought we went to it pretty hard, [and] I'm happy for the result for the girls."

Essex looks to get its second consecutive win this weekend as it hosts Maryland Juco opponent Anne Arundel Community College Saturday afternoon. Play is scheduled to start at 12 p.m.