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With the victory, Boston leads the Eastern Conference's Northeast Division with
an 8-2 record, while New Jersey falls to 2-6-1. Despite the win, Renegades
coach Darren Gallagher was less than pleased with his team's overall play, as
New Jersey outplayed his squad for much of the contest after the game's only
goal and had the better scoring opportunities in the second half.
"I don't think we were cohesive as a team," he said. "We didn't possess the
ball as well as we can. We needed to change the point of attack more today and
keep the ball for longer spells. We forced things. Our final-third
decision-making was poor. We gave possession away and it's not like us.
"I don't think we ever got our consistency today in any point in the game,"
he added. "We had short spells of brilliance and quality, but it wasn't
cohesive."
That didn't seem to be the case early on, however. Boston had a good chance
in the opening minutes when midfielder
Allison Martino crossed the ball to forward
Ashlee Pistorious, but her low shot was saved
by New Jersey keeper Robyn Jones (13 saves).
Not long after that, though, the Renegades broke through. Pistorious found
room on the left side and sent a nice crossing ball through the box on the back
post for Huster, who headed it in for the 1-0 advantage at the 14:50 mark.
"It came from the left side and Ashlee played a pretty good ball in the air
and I just happened to follow it in at that time and headed it in," said Huster.
"That was a flash of quality that we know our team can produce, but there
wasn't enough of it today," said Gallagher.
New Jersey nearly got the equalizer later in the half when Amanda Wheeler
took a free kick from the top left corner of the 18 extended and found the foot
of teammate Michelle Verzi, but Renegades goalie
Meghann Burke (8 saves) made a terrific, diving stop to keep the
visitors off the scoreboard.
Burke's play in net was critical in the second half and spoiled several
golden scoring opportunities as New Jersey kept the pressure up. The first came
not long after halftime when Wildcats forward Lisa Chinn stole the ball outside
the 18 and flipped a pass to the dangerous Kylee Rossi. Rossi faked a run to the
back line, then switched the ball to the middle of the field and fired a low
shot ticketed for the right side netting, but Burke was again up to the task
with a nice save.
Moments later, New Jersey's Kaila Sciacca broke in all alone after a turnover
in Boston's end, but Burke dove to her left and tipped away the shot after
aggressively coming off her line.
The Renegades did well the rest of the game to keep dangerous chances to a
minimum, but didn't have too many quality chances of their own. Still, it was
enough to get the win.
"If you had told me we'd be 8-2 and at the top of the league at this point in
the season, I'd have been elated," said Gallagher, whose team takes on the
second-place Long Island Rough Riders next week. "We have some key injuries that
we're dealing with right now. That's weakened us, but we're still good enough to
be where we are. We just need to raise the level a little bit, certainly for
next week."
"We're getting along, we're having fun together when we play," said Huster.
"I think that's what you need. At practice, it's fine. From there, I think the
rest of the season should be okay." |
