31 seconds.
That is all the time it took for the Northwestern Wildcats to concede a goal to Maryland in an eventual 2-1 loss Sunday.
59 minutes.
That is the average time it took the ‘Cats to respond to goals against Maryland and, three days prior to that, in a 3-2 loss to Rutgers.
The thing I am not revealing in these opening lines is the bigger picture: Maryland’s besting Northwestern led to its first win since Sept. 6 and also gave the team its first three points in the Big Ten. The Terps now sit second-to-last,
not last, in the conference, just above the winless USC Trojans.
What’s also true is that Northwestern was completely and totally dominated by the Scarlet Knights in the first half of Thursday’s matchup, falling victim not only to Lilia Calvert’s offensive acumen but also to Marian Dunne’s playmaking abilities.
I do not want to be overdramatic, nor do I want to jump to conclusions, but Northwestern, with just four matchups left to finish out the conference season (including No. 2 Michigan State), has to jump two places in the Big Ten standings to qualify for the Big Ten Tournament.
This means that every point counts, especially when the cutoff threshold currently sits at Wisconsin’s 11 points. Northwestern, on the other hand, is tied at 10 points with Minnesota and Rutgers. There is ample opportunity for the ‘Cats to fight for their rightful spot in the tournament in these last few games, if they can bounce back.
This recovery first begins with organization. The reason why the ‘Cats let Maryland edge past them less than one minute into the game is because they didn’t do the preliminary work of marking up running players in the box. This job, of course, was made more difficult by the pouring rain that had to have impacted vision on the field, but it was just sloppy from Northwestern to let that one go.
Northwestern and Maryland were equal in virtually all margins of the game: The Wildcats rattled off 14 shots to Maryland’s 12. Exactly half of Maryland’s shots were on target, while the ‘Cats had eight on-target shots.
Maryland goalkeeper Faith Luckey had a great game in net, saving seven shots to Nyamma Nelson’s four.
Nelson, despite being listed on the scoresheet as having let in two goals, should sleep well knowing that they weren’t really her fault: Both Lillian Bane and Lisa McIntyre’s goals were results more so of defensive lapses than offensive prowess, and certainly more so than goalkeeper error.
The next step is innovation. That is a bit of a buzzword for the ‘Cats, considering Moynihan’s stance on their season has been “We can’t catch a break,” but it is an important word nonetheless.
Looking back on the Rutgers game, which was dominated by the Scarlet Knights, we saw an important goal for Gwen Zimmerman get the ‘Cats on the board off a free kick from Megan Norkett.
Zimmerman has always been exceptionally good in the air for Northwestern, and finally notched her first collegiate goal on the back post. Additionally, Northwestern has been working on its set pieces, so this goal was particularly important in that regard.
And then again it was a name that has popped up a lot this season for the Wildcats: Camryn Freeman. She notched her third goal on the season thanks to a cross from Alex Fallon, a goal which put her at the top of Northwestern’s goal figure as a first-year.
Following this goal, Freeman finally got the nod from Moynihan to start her first-ever game as a Wildcat against Maryland, a game where Fallon got another assist to Holland Carey’s goal.
The final step for Northwestern to try to make a back-end recovery on its season is to control the controllables. Of its final four B1G games, three are at home, and one is on the road in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.
The Wildcats, who are 4-1-2 at home and 1-6-1 away, know that they play better on the stretched-out, wide Martin Stadium than on fields on the east coast. If they want to show that, despite an extreme amount of adversity afflicting their season, they can still pull forward as one of the top teams in the Big Ten, the next few games will be critical to do so.
One bright spot for the ‘Cats comes with the fact that they have another lighter game week to work on recovery, as their next game takes place on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT against USC.
The Senior Day celebration for Northwestern honoring the team’s seven seniors (Maddie Finnerty, Megan Norkett, Keira Wagner, Presley Nevadomsky, Holland Carey, CJ Roy and Sarah O’Donnell) will be streaming on Big Ten Plus.
