Georgia State women's soccer suffered defeat at the hands of 7-3-2 (3-1-0) James Madison, Sunday, 4-2. Stephanie Cuccia poured in two goals for the Panthers, but the Dukes offensive onslaught proved to be too much.
The loss drops Georgia State to 8-5-0 (1-3-0) on the year. Georgia State takes to the road for their next four games, not returning home until October 24th. The Panthers will face George Mason at 7 p.m. Friday, October 10th.
“When you play conference games, they're all important. Every game is something we want to take advantage of, so it's tough to lose two in a weekend,” said Georgia State head coach Domenic Martelli.
“We're going to have to find a way to string together some wins if we want to make it to the conference tournament and the NCAA. It's going to be uphill from here.”
The game remained deadlocked for the first 30 minutes, with neither team registering a shot on goal. Sophomore Heidi Blankenship played well to keep the Panthers alive, deflecting crossing passes, and, in one instance, taking the ball off of the foot of a James Madison attacker.
In the 32nd minute, Corky Julien landed the first body blow of the game with a goal. Minutes later, James Madison would take a 2-0 lead on a penalty kick from Kim Germain.
The Panthers attempted to regroup at the half, but Julien would not be denied, adding goals in the 58th and 63rd minutes.
Georgia State finished the game strong, however, as sophomore Stephanie Cuccia scored her second and third goals of the season.
“Stephanie really contributed today, she stepped up. She scored on opportunities within our gameplan, which we executed today. It's just that James Madison is a very good team,” said Martelli.
In the 69th minute, Cuccia found a seam in the defense and deposited a goal on a rocketed pass across the endline from Kay Harbrueger.
Cuccia continued to plug away and took advantage of another scoring opportunity in the 80th minute. Cuccia was tackled in the goal box and awarded a penalty kick. Stepping to the spot, Cuccia expertly guided a soft shot to the corner, fooling the goalkeeper.
Georgia State now embarks on a four game road trip, beginning with a trip to George Mason.
“We've been in this situation before, last year we were 1-3 after four conference games,” said Martelli. “But now these teams are better and the games have been tougher. We have to learn from playing four regionally ranked teams.”
