Sophie Reale saw plenty of chances in the final 20 minutes of Sunday’s game to record her first hat trick for Boston College women’s soccer.
The junior UCLA transfer has wasted no time getting comfortable as an Eagle, putting together three points in four games before Sunday’s matchup versus Albany.
“What she’s done is she’s established herself as, ‘Hey, I can win games, get me the ball,’” BC head coach Chris Watkins said. “And it’s super important for a young team that kind of looks around and isn’t sure.”
With just over six minutes remaining, Reale crossed to the middle and sent a ball blazing off the crossbar and into the back of the net, capping off a six-point performance.
One more goal from BC (3–1–1), and it coasted to a 6–1 win over Albany (0–4–1) after a draw and a loss in its past two games.
“I was really happy with the way [Reale] came out and took control of this game today—really important for us,” Thompson said.
The Eagles’ new faces were the X-factor of Sunday’s game, as all six of BC’s goals came from freshmen or transfers.
Reale began the scoring less than three minutes into the game on a similar setup as her third goal that came later in the game, striking the ball into the bottom-left corner.
Milla Lee attacked again with a bottom-left kick of her own—her third goal of the season—just under four minutes later, and Ada Henschien Aarsaether found the ball while camped in front of the net for her first collegiate score to make it 3–0 BC.
“We have a lot to learn, we’re still a naive team,” Waktins said. “We don’t know a lot of things, but boy, we’re exciting, and you’d bet on us in the future.”
Albany scored a goal of its own thanks to Casey Stowell’s finish off a perfect setup from Mariella Fulcher with 7:40 remaining in the first half.
But BC only used that as fuel to the fire, eager to post an emphatic win after failing to score in its past two games.
Reale netted her second of the game after a penalty was called in Albany’s box, allowing her to easily punch in a penalty kick goal 7:31 into the second half. Her third goal came 30 minutes later and gave BC a 5–1 lead.
Freshman Emily Mara tallied her second goal of the season off an assist from Bella Douglas four minutes after Reale’s hat-trick goal.
The Eagles put together 25 shots, their most all season. But plenty of that offensive power can be attributed to the defense’s ability to stop the Great Danes from applying pressure. Albany only forced BC goalkeeper Olivia Shippee one shot, which was its lone score of the game as the ball spent almost the whole game on BC’s offensive side of the field.
“We all defend, and we defend hard,” Thompson said. “We hope to limit our opponents’ good chances, and I think for the most part we did that today.”
