Chatham Dominates Dover, Wins 4-1

In-sync passing and strong teamwork propelled the Chatham women's soccer team to a 4-1 victory over Dover at home on Tuesday.

The theme of the Cougars' soccer season has been to score fast and early. "We need to score faster," head coach Tracey Blanchard said. "But we are connecting our passes a lot better."

On Tuesday, it looked as though the Cougars would do just that as Jaclyn Leto gave a sharp pass to Lauren Maiorano less than three minutes into the game. Maiorano took a hard shot, but Dover goalkeeper Andrea Morales came up with a quick save. Morales had 18 saves on the day.

The Cougars dominated the first half and the crowd got a burst of excitement when Maggie Higgins kicked the ball past the line of Dover defensemen to a mobile Ellie Goepel. It appeared Goepel was going to have a one-on-one opportunity when at the last moment a Dover defenseman threw her body in front of the ball, giving the Cougars a corner kick.

Higgins sent a rocket to the middle of the goal mouth where Maiorano jumped above the pack and headed a ball into the back of the net for Chatham's first goal.

Chatham kept control of the ball almost the entire half and held Dover to three shots the entire game.

As the rain started to come down with less than six minutes left to play in the first half, McCall Moore had the ball at midfield. Moore passed off to Higgins, who crossed the ball to Goepel. Goepel banked a shot into the back of the goal to bring the Cougars up 2-0.

Less than three minutes later, Jaclyn Leto fired a shot off, which ricocheted off of a Dover defensemen past Morales to score Chatham's third and final goal of the half.

The rain and intensity built as the second half began.

Most of the half was played in the middle of the field with Chatham dominating possession. Fourteen minutes into the half, Dover got a surge of life when the ball was crossed in front of the goal and Dover's Jenifer Calle tapped it in for Dover's only goal.

"You have to give Dover credit," Blanchard said. "They have really improved."

Chatham's solid passing coupled with increasingly harsh weather conditions made it impossible for Dover to bounce back.

With less than a minute left on the clock, it seemed that Chatham would take a 3-1 victory. But in the last 45 seconds, Chatham got one last shot off. Dover's goalie tipped the ball and it bounced off the bottom of the top crossbar. With seconds left Goepel tapped the ball into the goal to close the game at 4-1.

The Cougars improve to 5-3-1 and will face Hanover Park at home on Thursday at 4 p.m.