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Bengals' new strategy leads to 2-0 victory; SUNYAC play on deck
By Aaron Garland
On September 19, 2012
A new offensive strategy may be the tweak the Buffalo State women's soccer team has been searching
for.
After scoring just two goals in their first four games, the Bengals (1-5) doubled that number in the last
two games, a 3-2 loss at No. 1 ranked William Smith on Wednesday and a 2-0 win over host Pittsburgh-
Bradford on Saturday.
A big reason for the offensive improvement is that head coach Nick DeMarsh implanted three forwards
into the attacking formation instead of the two the team had been using.
"When we look at the goals we were conceding and the goals that we weren't scoring," DeMarsh
said, "We all thought, and I think the players agreed, that maybe we should try to attack a little bit more
and put more pressure on the other team so that we can spend less time defending and more time with
the ball."
On Wednesday, William Smith justified its top national ranking early. The Herons scored two goals in the
first seven minutes to jump to a 2-0 lead. But the Bengals didn't fold. Junior midfielder Paula Jones cut
the lead in half with a goal assisted by freshman Taylor Volkman in the 13th minute.
An upset was within reach after junior Shannon Yokopovich tied the game with a goal in the 30th
minute, leaving the score tied at the half. Juniors Jordan Dudish and Jenna Lynn assisted on the goal.
The second half started much like the first, as the Herons scored what proved to be the deciding
goal just 1:52 in. Outshot 21-6, the Bengals were left defending for much of the match. Sophomore
goalkeeper Linda Banfield finished with eight saves for the Bengals.
Senior forward Melissa Mahoney found the game to be beneficial to the Bengals because they were able
to work on their new formation against top competition.
"We got to work on our defensive shape a lot," she said. "We started playing a new formation - we
played a 4-3-3 in that game, which we had never played before this season - and it got us good practice
working on our shape because we had to play defense a lot of the game."
A 4-3-3 formation consists of four defenders, three midfielders and three forwards as opposed to the
former 4-4-2.
The Bengals earned their first win of the season against Pittsburgh-Bradford on Saturday, thanks in large
part to a few young players.
After a scoreless first half, freshman midfielder Taylor Volkman scored on an assist from sophomore
forward Meghan Allen in the 51st minute. Mahoney added an insurance marker in the 78th minute with
the assist going to sophomore defender Liz Malinowski.
DeMarsh was satisfied with the performance and referred to getting contributions from some of the
younger faces on the team as "clutch."
"We're leaning on them whether that's okay or not," DeMarsh said. "It remains to be seen, but we're
leaning on them to play a big role in this season."
The Bengals held a slight 15-14 advantage in shots while each team had four corner kicks apiece.
DeMarsh noted how well the three-forward attack worked throughout the game.
"(Saturday) was the first game where we got to open up and attack and see what we could do and
we did fairly well," he said. "We made some high percentage chances. I thought we actually probably
should have scored a few more, but I was fine with two goals and a win."
Banfield earned her first shutout of the season with eight saves in the win and was satisfied to get the
first win of the season before SUNYAC play begins.
"It's definitely a confidence boost and we have been working really hard at kind of just piecing things
together," she said. "It feels good to finally get a result and know that what we've been working on is
actually helping and working for us."
The Bengals will look to apply lessons learned from their challenging non-conference schedule when
they open SUNYAC play this weekend with a pair of road games against Brockport at 4 p.m. Friday and
Geneseo at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Aaron Garland can be reached by email at garland.record@live.com.
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