To all in attendance Saturday night at Don Shula Stadium, the effort put forth by the John Carroll women's soccer team was evident.
Strong and physical play, hustle for loose balls, working until the final tick of the clock ... all the benchmarks of a team still trying to make things happen.
Yet the scoreboard stood in denial.
John Carroll fell by a 3-1 score to visiting Wilmington College in a match where despite the efforts, not much went right for the home team.
Wilmington notched two goals in the first half, one of which caromed off the inside of the crossbar on a perfectly placed 30-yard free kick by Erika Good.
John Carroll was able to use a corner kick from
Dre Regrut in the 59th minute that struck off a Wilmington player and into the net for an own goal to slice gthe dificit in half, but less than three minutes later, the Quakers got an insurance goal from Taylor Scott that took advantage of John Carroll's only true defensive letdown in the final 45 minutes.
The Quakers held slight edges in shots (13-11) and corner kicks (4-2).
Wilmington moves to 8-4, 2-1 in the OAC, while the Blue Streaks dropped their sixth in a row to slip to 2-10-1 overall and 0-3 in league play.
