Worcester
State Falls In Double OT
(Courtesy Williams College Sports Information)
WILLIAMSTOWN, MA –
The first time Western Connecticut and Worcester
State played this season the outcome was
determined in 90 minutes with Western
Connecticut prevailing 2-0, but today it took
13:11 minutes longer for Western Connecticut to
down Worcester State, 2-1.
Western
Connecticut opened the contest by controlling
the midfield, mostly by the dominant play of
sophomore midfielder Cassie Barbaresi, who
seemed to be everywhere and when she was in the
attacking third she had the ball at her feet. "Barbaresi
is the best player I've seen in Div, III," said
Worcester State Matt Kagan validating the
performance by Barbaresi.
The first real
threat of the game came when the Colonials'
Angela Wozniak fired a shot from outside box on
the left to the far post that required Erin
Doherty to dive to her left to keep out of the
goal. A Colonials' direct kick by Caitlin Boyle
moments later, flicked on by Catherine Nathans
also tested Doherty but she kept the ball out of
the net again with a quick reaction.
Worcester State made
a few runs into the attacking third of the
field, but the Lancers had trouble getting
testing shots on the Colonials' Jenna
Cappellieri.
Western Connecticut
notched the first goal of the contest at 34:06
when Barbaresi lofted a corner kick from the
right of Doherty across the goalmouth and past
the fingertips of Doherty to the feet of Molly
Desljarlais who was able to get the ball to
Nathans who beat Doherty.
Just before the
first half ended the Lancers made one last run
at the goal, but Cappellieri was up to the task
of stopping a shot from the top of the box by
Kelsey Irish. Irish tried to go up high and
under the bar, but Cappellieri was able to
elevate and snare the shot as the horn went off
ending the half.
The second half
started off slowly as each team had trouble
building an attack and again it was Barbaresi
who shook things up. Her direct kick from about
35 yards out to the right of Doherty was just
punched up and over the bar by a leaping Doherty
to keep the score 1-0 in favor of Western
Connecticut.
As the second half
wore on the Lancers began to have more and more
success with the long ball and Tiffany Rotatori
was almost sprung at 85:07 when her right footed
shot from Cappellieri's left was two feet wide
of the right post and crashed into the side
netting. Refusing to be denied, Rotatori was
back a little over three minutes later to net
the equalizer as she took a pass from Stephanie
Demake down the left side of the box and ripped
a left footer back across the goal to beat
Cappellieri to knot the score at 1 at 88:31.
The score
remained tied at one at the end of regulation
and both teams managed one shot each in the
first overtime session. Early in the second OT
stanza Western Connecticut's Megan Staropoli
found sophomore midfielder Amy Corchard just
inside the box on the right with a pass in the
104th
minute and Corchard scored the game-winning goal
that boosted the Colonials into an Elite Eight
game tomorrow vs. Hamilton College.
"I was wide open and
I was saying to myself, please give me the ball,
I know I will score," said Amy Corchard.
Corchard fired the Staropoli pass just inside
the far left post to send the Colonials on to
the Sectional Finals on Sunday afternoon at 1:00
pm.
"A lot of teams
would have folded giving up a late goal like we
did, but our kids were great about getting
together to get this done – we didn't even have
to say anything to them," said Western head
coach Joe Mingachos.
The 2-1 win by
Western Connecticut upped the Colonials' record
to 20-2-1 on the year, while the Lancers ended
their season at 16-6.
Looking ahead to
tomorrow's match up with Hamilton, a 2-1 winner
over host Williams, Mingachos said, "It's going
to be a very difficult match for us against a
Hamilton team that came in here and beat a good
Williams team. It will be interesting to see how
we respond mentally and physically after today's
match."
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