ORONO, Maine — University of Maine junior striker and leading scorer Abby Kraemer made up for some lost time in Sunday’s impressive 2-0 America East soccer victory over Bryant University.
She missed Thursday’s game, a 2-0 loss at UMass Lowell, because she picked up a second yellow card with 39 seconds left in UMaine’s previous game against the New Jersey Institute of Technology, which resulted in a red card and one-game suspension.
And she certainly came through on Sunday, scoring her 10th goal of the season in the first half and beautifully setting up sophomore striker Julie Lossius for an insurance goal in the second half.
UMaine extended its home unbeaten streak to 16 games (9-0-7) and the team is now 9-1-4 overall and 4-1-1 in America East this season. The loss to UMass Lowell snapped its America East regular season unbeaten streak at 12 games (7-0-5).
Bryant fell to 6-5-3 and 2-3-2, respectively.
“Sitting on the sideline (for the UMass Lowell game) definitely wasn’t fun. I was watching the game wanting to get in. I’ve been looking forward to today since that game. I was definitely ready to go,” said Kraemer, who opened the scoring at the 23:57 mark of the game.
Kraemer and Lossius were right next to each other 25 yards from goal on the right hand side and Lossius had the ball.
“We kind of bumped into each other which is why we were kind of close,” Kraemer said. “So I kind of ran in behind and just thought I’d shoot.”
Kraemer ran onto Lossius’ short pass and rifled a low shot into the far corner past Bryant senior goalie Kate McNeil.
“I was just hoping for the best and it ended up pretty good,” Kraemer added.
That proved to be the only goal the Black Bears needed as they completely dominated the game from start to finish, smothering the Bulldogs with their speed and tenacity and allowing them just two shot attempts over the 90 minutes.
UMaine graduate student goalkeeper Kira Kutzinski finished with one save.
UMaine finished with 20 shot attempts and McNeil was forced to make eight saves, which kept Bryant in the game.
UMaine also had an 8-1 edge in corner kicks.
The Black Bears swarmed the ball and won most of the 50-50 balls, generating several transition chances off turnovers.
The Black Bears had a 61-39 edge in ball possession and spent more time in the attacking third than Bryant.
“This was as complete a performance as we’ve had all season,” said UMaine head coach Scott Atherley. “One of the biggest pieces is we had the ball and when you have the ball, you have control of the game.”
He added that midfielders Luise Reinwald, Victoria Dungey, Lara Kirkby and Lincolnville’s Kristina Kelly did an exceptional job controlling the midfield. Kelly was also used as a wing.
“They were good, they were mobile, they were using the spacing very very well. We were really good with our tempo,” Atherley said.
The Black Bears had a 9-1 edge in shots in the first half and had four good scoring chances before Kraemer gave them a well-deserved lead at the 23:57 mark.
Julie Lossius slipped her a short through ball down the right side and Kraemer raced on to it and rifled a low 17-yard shot into the far corner past McNeil.
Prior to the goal, other good scoring chances included when Doireann Fahey sailed an open header wide off a Kelly corner kick; Kraemer shot directly at McNeil after being sent in down the left flank by Kelly; Kelly’s powerful strike from the top of the area carried over the far post; and Dungey floated a shot from the top of the 18 that hit off the top of the crossbar.
Lossius provided UMaine with the important insurance goal 11:13 into the second half. It was her first of the season.
Kraemer sprinted down the left wing to the end line and then poked the ball through a defender’s legs before running around her and picking up the ball on the other side of her.
She then spotted Lossius racing toward the goal and placed a perfect knee-high pass across the goalmouth. Lossius guided it into the open net with the inside of her right leg.
“[Faking people out] is one of my favorite things to do. I saw myself one on one so I figured why not go for it,” Kraemer said. “Then I saw Julie and she buried it.”
“I saw her taking on [the defender], then I gave her an angle and she found me and I put it in the net,” Lossius said.
Bryant head coach Andy Biggs said UMaine “played confidently and caused us a lot of trouble, without a doubt.”
“They’re a really good team,” said Bryant standout senior midfielder and co-captain Makayla Griffin. “They definitely came at us really hard. We tried our best, we fought pretty hard but at the end of the day, they came out with [the win].”
UMaine, second in America East, will travel for a showdown with league leader Binghamton next Sunday at noon.
Bryant will host Chicago State in a non-conference game on Thursday at 7 p.m.