Kiski Area grad Emerson Johngarlo helps to anchor stingy defense for RMU women's soccer

As a freshman with the Robert Morris women’s soccer team last fall, Emerson Johngarlo faced the usual challenges a just-out-of-high-school player faces: adapting to the speed and physicality of the game, balancing her practices and games with academics, etc.

But Johngarlo had an added degree of difficulty. She was taking part in her first serious soccer since suffering an ACL injury that caused her to miss her senior season at Kiski Area.

Beyond a smattering of club games, her maiden voyage at Robert Morris proved to be her first consistent soccer action in more than a year.

“Getting into the full swing, it was, obviously, hard,” she said. “There were a lot of ups and downs. I just kept rehabbing my knee. I still rehab it now. You usually have long-term issues with your ACL. I just kept pushing through.”

Push through she did. Johngarlo appeared in 14 of the Colonials’ 18 games — logging more than 800 minutes for the season — and made seven starts.

Now, fully healthy and with a full year of college soccer in her rearview mirror, Johngarlo is an integral piece of a Colonials defense that has been, to say the least, stingy.

Through their first 10 matches, the Colonials were 7-1-2 (1-1-0 in the Horizon League) and had given up only eight goals. Johngarlo started nine of those 10 matches and played all 90 minutes in seven.

Four of Robert Morris’ wins came via shutout.

On Sept. 17, the Colonials matched their 2022 season and Horizon League win totals with a 5-1 shellacking of Green Bay. The teams played to a 0-0 draw last season.

A pair of transfers have played a big part in the Colonials tightening up their defense. Goalie Brenna Murray arrived after spending her first four years at Charlotte. After not seeing game action for two seasons, she started the final 11 matches of her career with the 49ers.

Fullback Jillian Marvin, a Peters Township native, spent her freshman season at Kent State, where she made six starts in her 16 appearances. Marvin’s arrival enabled Johngarlo to return to her natural position at center back after she spent much of her freshman season at fullback.

But the maturation of his young defenders, coach Chris Shaw said, also has been key. Count Johngarlo in that group.

“(Murray) has helped with a lot of the organization and communication back there. That’s a big piece,” said Shaw, in his fourth season at Robert Morris. “I think the other piece … all the other players have all returned. There’s a lot more experience back there, even though we’re pretty young in the back.

“They all got significant minutes last year.”

Defense was an area of emphasis coming into the 2023 season. Robert Morris went only 1-7-2 in the Horizon League and 7-7-4 overall. Even in the matches they won, Shaw said, they gave up too many goals.

That emphasis paid off in the nonconference schedule (6-0-2). Shaw said he sees a unit that is more composed, disciplined and less prone to errors. With Horizon League play underway, keeping that up will be paramount.

Johngarlo said she is confident the Colonials’ back third will hold up better than last season.

“Our communication, that’s one big thing that keeps us working well together,” she said. “We all trust each other, and we’ll just talk to each other and tell each other what we need to do. And if something goes wrong, we’ll talk about it.

“And trust is a big thing. I trust everyone back there.”

Shaw said he isn’t necessarily surprised by the strides Johngarlo has made, calling her “coachable” and “open to feedback.” Also, throughout his coaching career, he said, he has had many defenders who were on the field for four years. Years 1 and 2 were mostly learning experiences then, by Years 3 and 4, those players developed into solid defenders.

He said he is seeing some of that transformation with Johngarlo now. She also has the requisite mentality to play defense.

“Players who are back there are a little bit more blue collar and have more of a grinding mentality,” Shaw said. “I always say, ‘You have piano players, and you have piano movers.’ Your attacking players are more of the piano players, then you have those players who are willing to do the dirty work and kind of dig in, find a way to ground out games and be fearless and hard-nosed.”

Johngarlo never had a problem with being a “piano mover,” but she said it took some time to develop the moxie she needed to allow her natural grit and ability to show at the college level. She said she has overcome that hurdle since Year 1, too.

“Probably my biggest takeaway (from freshman year) was to play with confidence and be confident in yourself,” she said. “Because you’re, obviously, where you are for a reason, and you’re playing for a reason. That’s what I keep with me now.

“I was nervous (for) a lot of the games last year because I was trying to prove myself and whatnot. But once you get over that, you realize why you’re here.”

Now, the Colonials want to show they belong in the Horizon League. Robert Morris was picked to finish last in the nine-team conference, with Wright State, which Robert Morris will host Sept. 24, picked on top.

Johngarlo said she and her teammates aren’t worried about what anybody else thinks of them and are ready to prove they are much better than others anticipate. A big shot of confidence from the 6-0-2 stretch to open the season, she said, will go along way to making that happen.

“I know it has given us all a lot of confidence,” she said. “We always say we have an underdog role with preseason rankings and whatnot, but I think the way we started, it has given everyone confidence and optimism to keep pushing and keep trying to perform well.”