Central Michigan University
Buffalo
Chippewas Drop 1-0 MAC Soccer Match
10/17/2014 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
Parker Scott, CMUchippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Celina Carrero scored in the sixth minute and Buffalo made it stand up as the Bulls handed Central Michigan a 1-0 Mid-American Conference soccer loss Friday at the CMU soccer complex.
CMU slipped to 3-11-1, 1-6-0 MAC. Buffalo is 9-2-3 and leads the MAC East at 5-0-2.
The Chippewas play play host to Akron (6-8-1, 2-5-0) in a MAC game on Sunday. The Zips lost, 3-0, at Toledo on Friday.
Carrero's goal came on a rebound. She beat CMU sophomore goalkeeper Heather Laeufer low to the right corner. It was her fourth goal of the season.
"If you concede too an early goal, all of a sudden now you're chasing the game and goals are hard to come by," CMU coach Peter McGahey said. "Buffalo is a veteran team that has a lot of confidence, and they're are hard to break down. t's hard enough to score one goal, but now your task and challenge is to try and score two."
Buffalo outshot the Chippewas 17-4. Laeufer was credited with nine saves. The Bulls had three corner kicks to CMU's two. Laura Dougall made three saves in posting the shutout.
"I think the hard reality of the game is one goal for us conceding is too much," McGahey said. "So again I thought the defenders did a good job, we rotated some players, and I thought they made a good adjustment in the second half.
"I thought Emily Basten did a good job to come back in and play and I think Heather was solid again in goal today."
CMU played significantly stronger in the second half, McGahey said.
"At halftime we talked about risk and urgency, we talked about places where we have to take some risks and some places where we have to get some players involved," he said. "I thought in the second half for the most part, the plan we came out of halftime with was going OK then once buffalo settled into that we changed it again at the end to try and give us a different look."
After playing host to Akron on Sunday, the Chippewas split next weekend with a home game against Ohio and a road game at Kent State. They close the regular season at Toledo on Nov. 30.
"We just have to keep executing what we need to execute," Laeufer said, "always have in mind that we want to be able to take these next four games and do what we need to do to make the MAC Tournament."
