Jasmyne Spencer and Meghan Lenczyk each scored on Sunday to propel the New York Fury over the ASA Chesapeake Charge. The Fury maintained possession throughout of much of the match but failed to convert numerous chances. The Charge defense held strong despite spending most of the afternoon in their defensive half of the field.
In the opening five minutes, the Fury had two chances to get on the scoreboard as they were awarded two corner kicks. The Charge defense stayed firm however and the game remained scoreless.
To their credit, the Charge did manage to press Fury at times throughout the game. Unfortunately, their speediest player and perhaps best offensive weapon, University of Maryland commit Alexis Prior-Brown, went down in the 24th minute. She had to be helped off the field and was unable to return.
The task of generating offense for the Charge fell to midfielders Cheyenne Skidmore and Alexandra Brandt. Brandt was behind the Charge’s best offensive chance of the day, a 37th minute long range shot that went just over the crossbar.
Two minutes after Brandt’s shot, Spencer broke the tie and gave the Fury the lead. Spencer’s goal came off a free kick just outside the box. Sinead Farrelly’s free kick found Lenczyk’s head, but Charge keeper Erin Quinn made the initial save. The rebound fell to Spencer who’s shot easily found the back of the net.
“Before the game, we kind of emphasized finishing off set pieces and we got an opportunity, Meghan Lencyzk got her head on it and I was there to put it away,” Spencer said.
Lenczyk extended the Fury’s lead to two in the 56th minute. Lenczyk’s head found the end of well-placed cross by Merritt Mathias.
The Charge mustered a few offensive chances in the second half but failed to convert any of them. Most notably, Skidmore played a cross out to right in stoppage time. Luckily for the Fury, none of Skidmore’s teammates were able to get on the end of it.
After the game, Fury Head Coach Paul Riley complimented his opponents.
“They are much better than there results suggest,” he said. “They’re going to get some wins before the end of the season, for sure.”
Charge Captain Jess Hnatiuk admitted that it was frustrating to lose both the Fury and Flash games. Hnatiuk is optimistic about the rest of the Charge’s season.
“It’s unfortunate that the results don’t show how much we’ve been improving through the season but hopefully coming up to the second part the season we’re going to step up and put some games away,” she said.
The Charge will get a chance to show their improvement on Friday night when they face the Chicago Red Stars.
The Fury will meet the Boston Breakers at Dilboy Stadium in Somerville, Mass. on Saturday.
