Published: August 31, 2008 10:59 pm      

Warriors shut out Concord women

ATHENS — Like many college teams, the Concord women’s soccer program started off its season with two much stronger opponents — and now the Lady Lions go into Labor Day at 0-2, looking for their first win.

Sunday, the Warriors of East Stroudsburg (Pa.) University left Athens with a 6-0 victory, two days after Concord blew a 2-0 lead and lost 3-2 to Northern Kentucky University.

Concord head coach Carol Bonnes said, “We played as a team on Friday, a great team performance. ... Today (Sunday), once a few goals went in, it just went downhill, and we didn’t have that tenacity to keep fighting.”

Lynda Hicks, a 5-foot-8 senior for the Warriors, netted two goals before halftime and gave the visitors a 3-0 lead less than three minutes into the second half. She led ESU last season with 11 goals.

East Stroudsburg coach Bob Berkowitz said, “She’s got a very good nose for the goal. But this was a team effort. We did a good job getting the ball to her in appropriate spots.”

Bonnes said, “We came out sluggish. We’ve got to start getting tough, playing these games back-to-back.

“We’re young. We’ve had some problems with injuries. But at the end of the day, we’ve got players who’re very capable of stepping on the field.”

After a long talk with the team after Sunday’s game, Bonnes said, “We’ve learned that we’re not individuals. We’re taking responsibility for our positions, now. We can’t look at someone else and blame. ...

“They’re very tough, physical teams,” Bonnes said about the first two opponents. “It’s a good idea to start out tough, to see where you are and to see where you need to be. It’s good that this happens early on in the season and not at mid-season.”

She said she was happy to see that “everybody got into the game.” She said she saw good efforts by freshman Tori Faulkner, Dani Pye, Sarah Coelho and Lindsay DeVaughn. “She never stopped,” Bonnes said.

DeVaughn and Katie Cuviello had Concord’s two shots on goal in the contest. Coelho made 10 saves of the Warriors’ 16 shots on goal. Hicks and Kailyn Buckley each took four shots.

East Stroudsburg, a member of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, was 12-7-1 in 2007 and starts this year 2-0 after shutting out Davis & Elkins 3-0 on Friday.

Berkowitz said, “Concord’s a good team. I didn’t see the game going like this. We’re extremely happy to get our of here with a result like this. ...

“We’ve played two of the better teams in the (West Virginia) conference with positive results.”

Bonnes said, “We’ve got a long way to go, but we’re very, very capable of coming back from this and learning from our mistakes.”

The Lady Lions play King College on Wednesday in Bristol, Tenn. Concord will play on the road until starting a three-match homestand on Sept. 28.

— Contact Tom Bone at tbone@bdtonline.com