The South Carolina women's soccer team breezed to a 5-1 victory against the College of Charleston on Sunday afternoon at Stone Stadium.
The Gamecocks had an opportunity to make an impression in its first home game of the spring season. The game was played in three 30-minute periods instead of two 45-minute periods to give the teams more opportunities to take breaks and make substitutions.
The Cougars started the first period on the prowl due to some early game jitters for the Gamecocks, but South Carolina was able to settle down.
Freshman midfielder Kylie Cino broke through to the goal early, but her attempt was stopped by the keeper. There was also a sign of things to come with freshman forward Katie Shea Collins breaking through on a counterattack, but her shot was also saved.
A few minutes later, a bad touch by Charleston's defender was pounced on by South Carolina, and Collins sped in to pass the ball into the corner of the net to give the Gamecocks a 1-0 lead.
The Cougars stayed competitive as it tried to level the score. Charleston almost did pull even with a high shot off of a corner kick saved by freshman goalkeeper Emma Kirlin. Charleston continued to push and won another corner kick after about 20 minutes, but all of its attacks kept being snuffed out by the South Carolina defense.
All of the steady defensive work paid off as Collins broke through again, and shot another ball into the back of the net to give the Gamecocks a 2-0 advantage to close the first period.
The second period was more in favor of Charleston,. Instead of being rebuffed by the Gamecocks the first time around, the Cougars found some openings to work with. Its forwards had solid chemistry and played with high energy, and a good piece of combination play had to be broken up by freshman defender Sophie Johnson early on.
The Gamecocks started to stir about 10 minutes into the second period. The attack focused on more direct play to the strikers in freshman Autumn Cayelli and sophomore Dubem Dike. South Carolina did a lot of hard running to try and push the ball up the field into dangerous areas, but a few missed connections in the final third of the period kept it off the scoresheet.
A slight lapse in concentration from the Gamecock defense lead to a quick turnover and score for College of Charleston to reduce the deficit to 2-1. Charleston was presented with a chance to tie the game a few minutes later, but it was well saved by Kirlin. Near the close of the second period another chance to score was saved by sophomore goalkeeper Maria Kemp after a deflected free kick skidded towards the Gamecock goal.
The third period was all South Carolina. Collins broke down the wing and set up an easy tap in to make it 3-1 and a good piece of combination play set up freshman midfielder Cuyler Zulauf to score from outside of the box for 4-1. Collins sped down the wing again to set up a tap in for 5-1 near the end of the period.
Collins takeover
The game was close after the first two periods despite a Collins double, so she created 3 more goals to get to the final score. Her quickness, speed and reactions meant she got to every loose ball first and slalomed through defenders. She also had the awareness to latch on to most of the balls that came her way.
Collins scored or assisted all 5 South Carolina goals in the game.
Gamecocks broke the game in the final period
South Carolina played with a 4-4-2 diamond formation throughout most of the game. This indicated a larger focus on numbers in the center of the field, and College of Charleston was as prepared as it could be. The Cougars used its very narrow 4-1-4-1 and 4-3-3 defensive formations, and even sometimes switched to a 4-2-3-1 to try and defend the middle of the field.
This almost stymied the Gamecocks, but the team leaned on its game breakers in forwards like Collins, Cayelli and Dike making runs in behind, and wide backs like junior defender Micah Bryant pushing forward to find space outside of the Cougars' tightly compacted formation. This helped open the field and give South Carolina room to play, and by the final period they were firing on all cylinders.
Fast and ferocious
The Gamecocks utilized the long ball to great effect because of the speed on the team. South Carolina was able to burst into open space behind the College of Charleston defense, and that made the game easier. The Cougars had trouble covering the speedy Gamecocks in all of that open grass.
What's next?
The South Carolina women's soccer team is back in spring action on Saturday, March 29 at Stone Stadium against the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. The game will begin at 2 p.m.