Scoreless for the first half in girls soccer, Nazareth cracked Liberty’s code and tallied two goals in the second half to win its season opener against the Hurricanes, 2-0, last Wednesday at Liberty.

“I think what changed is we figured out what they were trying to do, so we tried to spread them out and played a little bit faster and put more pressure on their defense,” said Nazareth head coach Ziggy Lewis.

For one, the Hurricanes had their sights set on Nazareth players Kayley Hynes, Chloe Guerra, and Rachel Billet and were clogging the middle.

“We recognized that they were working in and through those three individuals and how could we take them away from that attack?” said Liberty head coach Andrew Uhler. “I liked that we were willing to get physical. That’s our brand of soccer, and we want to continue doing that. This is a loss on paper, but it’s not a loss in terms of improvement.”

Hynes was the first to find the back of the net with 34:11 remaining in the game.

“Kylie James kind of kicked it up in the air, and I trapped it in my chest and kicked it through the goalkeeper’s legs,” Hynes said. “It felt really relieving for me because I felt tense and kind of off the whole game, so it felt good to calm myself down, and for the team, to help build us up more. It was a good way to start off our season.”

Ava Petruska followed up with Nazareth’s second goal less than four minutes later.

“We have a win,” said Coach Lewis, “but can we get better?”

The Blue Eagles are looking to work on better chemistry in the offensive third and taking fewer touches on the ball in the final third.

“I returned my entire defense from last year, so they understand each other,” Lewis said. “It’s more, can we build on the midfield and the offense?”

The Hurricanes are looking to get some starters back, but in the meantime, Coach Uhler has a deep bench he can utilize.

“We have some injuries right now to typical starters-leaders, and so our players were able to step off the bench with the next-woman-up mentality, and at no point did they let the energy drop,” he said. “Our depth is something really impressive.”