A new crowd favorite chant took over the crowd on Saturday night at the Kathy Zolad Stadium as American International defeated New Haven 2-0 in the first game of Northeast-10 (NE-10) play for women’s soccer. American International College (AIC) was able to put the Chargers away with two second-half goals and impenetrable defense. With the loss, New Haven falls to 2-2-2 on the year (0-1 NE-10).

The student section of the audience was lively, yelling out “that’s our ball, ain’t it?” every time the ball was kicked out of bounds by AIC. Of all the chants they came up with, the out of bounds chant seemed to get the most laughter and response from both teams.

It was a high-spirited matchup between the two sides, as New Haven could not get anything going offensively. The Chargers got the ball to start the game, generating some early scoring chances but were unable to capitalize. AIC was mostly in control for the first 45 minutes, outscoring New Haven in shots-on-goal six to four. Both teams escaped without allowing a goal in the first half, setting up an intense, evenly played second half.

AIC was able to break the scoreless tie by converting a penalty kick in the 52nd minute by Rachel Newman, beating Chargers goalkeeper Amanda McQuillan. Following another goal in the 73rd minute by Leya Vohra came New Haven’s best scoring chances from Dakota Cimetta, who narrowly missed cutting the deficit to one with a shot that just barely missed the crossbar.

New Haven was able to generate more opportunities with shots from Madison Blonde, Alyssa McMahon and Caitlyn Toom. Blonde and Cimetta both registered three shots, with McMahon and Toom each registering one each.

New Haven will next head to Long Island to take on Adelphi University on Tuesday, Sept. 13 at Motamed Field. Kickoff will be at 6:00 p.m. as the Chargers look to get back in the win column.