Black Bears rise to challenge in opener

ORONO – Scott Atherley used to schedule a relatively easy opener for his University of Maine women’s soccer team.

But this year, the Black Bear head coach wanted an early challenge for his young squad. So he scheduled Sacred Heart, which gave up just 11 goals in 19 games last season, for Friday afternoon’s season-opener.

The Bears responded, posting a 1-0 victory in the second game of the Black Bear Invitational tournament at Alumni Field.

“Sacred Heart’s a good team and I saw it as a very challenging opener,” Atherley said. “I wanted to find out [how the team would respond] and it could go either way. That was a good win for us.”

Providence beat Marist 1-0 in the first game of the tournament.

Maine forward Heather Hathorn, a Scarborough native who was three goals away from tying the school career record, knocked in the game-winner 5 minutes and 1 second into the second half.

The play started with a corner kick. The ball bounced from player to player in the penalty area until Marie-Michele Bouchard sent a pass over to Hathorn, who booted it to the far corner of the net.

“We’ve really worked hard in preseason on all our restarts,” Hathorn said. “We want to be really deadly and get a reputation. We still have some work to do, but we worked real hard and everyone did a good job.”

Maine goalie Tanya Adorno stopped an Erica Rico shot in the first half, but that was the only shot on goal she faced. The Pioneers had trouble mounting any kind of offense and couldn’t get the ball within 45 yards of the goal in the final minute of the second half.

The Black Bears had 13 shots on goal.

“Everything came from [Maine’s] speed and their aggression and that’s why we couldn’t get out of the back,” Pioneers coach Joe Barroso said.

Athlerley’s main concern was shutting down Sacred Heart’s backfield, namely Jasmine Urbas, who was creating a lot of offense on her clearing balls into the midfield.

“We talked at halftime about stepping up higher and pressuring her because that was one-third of their attack,” he said. “As a result they couldn’t get the ball into the midfield.”

The Black Bears had some good chances in the first half but Ashley Mocarski, who was making her first start in goal for Sacred Heart, kept the Pioneers in the game. She finished with seven saves, including a tip-out of a Hathorn shot about 15 minutes into the first half. She swatted away a Laura Harper attempt about 51/2 minutes later.

There are no tournament games today, but competition resumes Sunday when Maine faces Providence at noon. Marist and Sacred Heart will play at 2 p.m.