The Robert Morris (1-6) women’s soccer team suffered their sixth consecutive loss to the Howard Bison (2-4) 3-1 Friday afternoon at the North Athletic Complex in Moon, PA. A strong, consistent offense and a weak Colonial defense, along with Jordan Taylor’s two-goal contest led the Bison to victory.

The Bison came out strong as they put pressure on the Colonials early. About two minutes in, RMU Goaltender Sydney Bruckner made three straight incredible saves on the Bison. This kept her team in the game and the score at zeroes.

Bruckner and the Colonial defense were then tested multiple times as the Bison kicked three of their eventual twelve straight corner kicks. Although no direct goals were scored off these kicks, the Bison offense took even more strides towards their first goal.

That first goal came from senior Whitney White as she made an impressive move around a defender and shot the ball into the right side of the net to make the score 1-0 roughly twenty minutes in.

Robert Morris, however, was able to respond before the first half came to a close. Great hustle by Jane Schleicher led to an RMU penalty kick, and the Colonials capitalized on the opportunity. Anni Varjoen took the kick and Keli Rosensteel directed the ball in and evened the score at one apiece.

Although the score was even, the game was controlled by Howard. Howard’s offense stole the show in the first half, and this continued in the second half.

Roughly five minutes into the second half, freshman Jordan Taylor danced through the defense and scored on an incredible individual effort play and gave Howard the lead 2-1.

Two minutes she took advantage of the Colonial defense, as she beat the keeper to the ball and scored yet again. This made the goal cushion two for the Bison.

“We had a little bit of a collapse on the defensive assignments in the start of the second half,” stated head coach John Kowalski after the game.

The Colonial offense had some great chances though, as senior Jane Schleicher led the charge shot after shot and rush after rush. Unfortunately for the Colonials, the offense around her struggled in the game to get things going.

Head coach John Kowalski explained in a post-game interview, “Jane is doing terrific but we need another goalscorer to help out, and at the moment those players are either on the bench injured or simply not on our roster.” Kowalski mentioned senior Victoria Kramer as a key player who is injured.

Moving forward the Colonials look to improve on their game both offensively and defensively with improving on finishing being the top priority. “We try very hard, but we are very depleted in talent,” stated Kowalski.

The Colonials will look to snap their six-game losing streak Sunday in Youngstown Ohio as they face Youngstown State at 1:00 pm.