ORONO, Maine — University of Maine women’s soccer coach Scott Atherley pointed out that none of his team’s 10 goals last season came on restarts from corner kicks and free kicks.
The Black Bears notched their first restart goal of the season on Sunday as freshman midfielder Vivien Beil scored off a corner kick with 23:10 left in the first half and they made it stand up to beat Fordham University (New York) 1-0.
Maine is now 2-0 while Fordham, which outshot Maine 10-8, is 1-1.
Beil took a short corner to Windham freshman Jenna Soucy and Soucy slid it back to Beil, who curled a 20-yarder from outside the penalty box into the upper far corner past Fordham junior goalkeeper Megan Fitzgerald.
“I saw that the goalie was out of the goal a little bit so I just tried it,” said Beil, who started all five games for Germany in the 2012 FIFA Under-17 World Cup.
“You can’t take anything away from her. That was a great shot. She put it in the upper 90. It was uncontested because, unfortunately, we were a little disorganized on that corner kick,” Fitzgerald said.
“That is the importance of restarts. That was the difference in the game,” said Atherley who said they discussed short-corner options while breaking down film the other day.
“They perfected it,” he said.
Substitute Nicol Natale came off the bench and created some chances for the Rams and Maine goalkeeper Claudia Dube-Trempe was forced to make a fingertip save off Kristina Maksuti’s 20-yard strike from the top of the penalty area after a Natale cross.
The Rams continued to press for the equalizer in the second half but the Black Bears handled the pressure effectively behind omnipresent senior center back Noelle Leon-Palmer and sophomore back Kendra Ridley, who did a quality job marking Jessica Widmann, according to Atherley.
Widmann was Fordham’s leading scorer last year.
Fordham had one glorious chance to equalize with eight minutes left when Carlie Wagner’s well-placed cross from the right wing found an unmarked Lane Cronin in the middle of the box, eight yards from goal. But Cronin headed it over the crossbar.
“That was a great ball. I should have had it,” said Cronin.
Dube-Trempe finished with five saves while Fitzgerald had two saves.
“The key was we stayed organized. [Fordham] was really organized and they kept coming at us but we stayed organized and communicated,” said Leon-Palmer, the 2014 America East Defender of the Year.
“The team did a great job preventing dangerous shots,” said Dube-Trempe, who was the AE Goalkeeper of the Year last season.
“We battled really well,” said Fordham coach Jessica Clinton. “Our goal was to be patient, which we were, and we got better as the game went along.”
Natalie Sims, who marked Beil, and back Nicole Bates were praised by Clinton for their performances.
Fordham beat Maine 2-0 last year when it outshot the Black Bears 16-4.
In an earlier Sunday game at Maine’s invitational round-robin tournament, Fairfield beat Wagner 2-1.