In a match-up pitting a pair of squads that were shutout on opening night, Westminster outlasted host River Hill on Saturday to take some positive vibes away from the Hawks' season-opening tournament.
Ryan Mills provided the game's lone goal midway through the first half and that proved to be enough for goalie Joey Conklin and the Owls' defense, which held strong the rest of the way for a 1-0 victory.
"Yesterday we possessed pretty much the majority of the game but just got unlucky — we had a couple of mental lapses that cost us two goals. So our mentality for this game today was to go 100 percent and stay focused every single minute of the game," said Mills, after the team was coming off a 2-0 loss to Liberty on Friday. "When I took that free kick, we've been working on it a couple of times, where we put a man on the outside of the wall and then I aim for that guy.
"It paid off for us."
Mills' goal came after a foul occurred just outside the top of the box and he proceeded to curl a free kick off the bottom of the crossbar and into the net. Both teams had chances during the run of play on the afternoon, but neither converted outside that early opportunity.
River Hill (0-2), which lost to Urbana by a 2-0 score on Friday, saw some steps in the right direction against Westminster, but ultimately was unable to get on the scoreboard. Hawks' coach Matt Shagogue says he hopes the high level of competition this early in the season proves to be beneficial.
"There's a lot we can take away and there's nothing like game experience for the guys, especially when you consider that at one point we had five sophomores and a freshman on the field," he said. "Certainly playing with some adversity, playing from behind for two games, that's good to experience. So I'm hoping there is something good to come out of this."
Even with a one-goal lead, Westminster never really took its foot off the accelerator. The Owls dominated time of possession for the remainder of the first half and the opening few minutes of the second to keep the Hawks on the defensive.
"Once we scored that goal, we had to keep the momentum up, which we did. We kept the pressure up and kept them on their heels," Mills said.
It wasn't until the latter stages that River Hill finally mustered some offense. Evan Doten got behind the back line on a couple occasions, with Gianni Gupta finding a little more space as well, but Conklin (6 saves) was there each time to thwart the opportunities.
He made two lunging saves in particular in the final 20 minutes that kept his team ahead.
"I felt a little confident, but you always feel that pressure being the goalie and the last line of defense," Conklin said. "I know that's a very good team and they are going to get their opportunities so I just had to keep my eye on the ball, be ready for whatever comes at me and know that I was going to have to make a big save for my team."
On the other side, Shagogue said the increased offensive pressure was something he needed to see from his group going forward.
"We had some difficulty even getting shots on target for the first game and a half, so in the second half today at least we got in behind and had some legitimate chances," he said. "We didn't put them away, but just getting them was an important step."
Westminster 1, River Hill 0
Goals: W – Mills.
Saves: W – Conklin 6; RH – Sherlock 3.
Half: 1-0 W.