A record crowd of 1,821 was on hand Friday night at KSU Stadium as the KSU Owls opened their 2012 campaign with competitive effort in a marquee match-up against the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Despite dealing with multiple injuries and constant pressure, the Black and Gold allowed just one goal, losing the season opener to the tune of 1-0. Despite the loss, 11 year head coach Rob King was pleased with the effort from his players and the atmosphere.
“First of all I thought everyone had a fantastic game tonight,” King said. “Obviously, playing against a school like the University of Alabama is quite exciting on our end.”
The Owls (0-1) entered the game with notable injuries, and the bench thinned again in the 15th minute of the contest when redshirt-freshman Chelsea O’Callaghan fell to the ground with a knee injury.
A short bench did not bode well for the Owls, as the Crimson Tide (1-0) applied non-stop offense, owning the ball for most of the contest. Alabama out-shot the Owls 12-2 in the first-half and 19-4 for the game.
The only goal of the game was scored by Alabama’s Katie Bourgeois in the 56th minute of action.
“We knew particularly early on, when we lost a player, given our numbers, that we weren’t going to be able to compete across the field,” King said.“So, we had to tactically decide where we were going to let them have the ball.”
Despite intense pressure from the Alabama offense, as the Crimson Tide controlled the ball on its offensive half of the field for seemingly the entire contest, senior goalkeeper Lauren Roberts had an impressive performance, allowing just one goal and recording seven saves in 90 minutes of action.
It was Roberts’ first start as goalkeeper for the Owls.
“I was thrilled with Roberts at the goal,” King said. “She’s not an underclassman, but this was her first game for us and she did a fantastic job.”
The game was a first match for true freshman Danielle Gray and Hannah Churchill as well.
“As far as the underclassmen go, I thought they did a fantastic job tonight. Danielle is dropping straight in as a center back, and that’s not her natural position,” King said.“She’s filling that position at the moment because we have a couple of players out.Hannah handled a lot of pressure tonight and was very organized.”
Redshirt-sophomore and preseason All-Atlantic Sun Conference player Katrina Frost had a frustrating game and was eventually tabbed with a yellow card late in the contest. Frost was one of just three Owls to put a shot-on-goal.
The offensive superstar, who led the team with 24 points and 11 goals in 2011 as a freshman, was constantly double-teamed throughout the night.
“Katrina is a very high level player,” King said. “She didn’t get a lot of help tonight because we actually had to restructure our formations. But, she was able to get a couple of shots off. One just went over the bar at the end of the first half. Given everything tonight, she did well for us.”
As far as O’Callaghan’s injury is concerned, no word was given by King. However, O’Callaghan was carted off the field at halftime and returned later in a leg-brace and crutches. Her injury status is still up in the air.
Regarding O’Callaghan’s injury, King simply described it as, “a big loss for us.”
