Three second half goals secured the win for Covenant College as the Bob Jones University Bruins fell 3-1 from Lookout Mountain, Georgia. With today's result, the Bruins now sit at 2-1 on the season.
"Our team put in maximum effort until the end, but unfortunately came up short against a strong Covenant side," said Assistant Coach Anna Grace Abrams. "We possessed well and found opportunities to score, but we couldn't capitalize in the second half. I am proud of the girls for their effort for 90 minutes. Luckily for us, we get to play again tomorrow."
The Bruins made their way to Georgia back-to-back games this weekend. Friday's contest marked the third meeting between the Bruins and the Scots.
Eight minutes into today's game, Sarah Ward chased the ball down in the far corner and battled to keep the ball in play before turning and crossing the ball towards the net where Mia Marks settled it and shot it past the keeper to put the Bruins on the board with the 1-0 lead.
The Bruins then had to go on the defensive as Covenant looked to strike back, but after 45 minutes of play, the Bruins still led the Scots 1-0.
After the halftime break, Covenant wasted no time as they evened the score just two minutes in. The Scots didn't back down and continued to pepper the Bruins' goal with shots and in the 71st and 79th minutes, added two more goals to take the lead.
The Bruins continued to fight but at the final whistle, it was the Scots on top 3-1.
"This was an extremely tough loss as we did so many things right the first half including getting the go ahead goal we needed. We had confidence and momentum going into halftime," said Head Coach Chris Carmichael. "This was a tale of two stories as we came out a little flat in the second half and then made several uncharacteristic bad mistakes that ended up costing us the goals they needed to pull ahead. Covenant is an extremely good team and they pounced on our mistakes and punished us badly for it. We did so many things right and we will build on that and work to correct the mistakes we made. We never lost the effort, and I'm proud of the team for working hard to the end. We knew going into this weekend that this would be a brutally tough couple of games and that this weekend was going to stretch us."
Carmichael continued saying, "Mia Marks provided constant leadership on the field and put in another phenomenal effort to not only get the go ahead goal but she also had a very high work rate when we needed it. It's a long season, and I have no doubt we will move forward one game at a time. This team is incredibly close and resilient and we will try to get some quick recovery and ready for our match tomorrow against a very tough Maryville team."
Tomorrow, the Bruins will be back on the pitch in Lookout Mountain, Georgia to take on Maryville College with kickoff scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
