Women's Soccer Advances to NE-10 Quarterfinals with 3-1 Win Over Adelphi
Ravens advance to NE-10 Semis on Thursday at Merrimack; Tori Gikas scores game-winning goal two minutes into second half
RINDGE, N.H. (October 31, 2010) -- The Franklin Pierce
University women's soccer team took down Adelphi, 3-1, on Sunday
afternoon in the Northeast-10 Conference Quarterfinals at Sodexo
Field. With the win, the third-seeded Ravens advanced to Thursday's
conference semifinals where they will face second-seeded Merrimack
in North Andover, Mass. Franklin Pierce improved to 13-4-1 on the
season, while Adelphi, seeded sixth in the conference tournament,
concluded its season with an 8-8-1 record.
Franklin Pierce went right to work in taking a 1-0 lead in the
match's fourth minute. Junior midfielder Aya Noguchi
(Tokyo, Japan) got the tally as she out-fought an Adelphi
defender in the box to for a loose ball, which she sent into the
upper-right corner of the net for her third goal of the season. The
tally came just two days after Noguchi was named to the All-NE-10
second-team following her first regular season in a Ravens'
uniform.
The early goal did not phase Adelphi, as the Panthers dictated the
pace of play for the next several minutes before finally knotting
the contest at 1-1 in the 27th minute when Emily Dunne dribbled
into the left-hand side of the box and blasted a shot past Franklin
Pierce goalkeeper Jocelyn Leon (Lenox, Mass.).
It was Franklin Pierce's turn to answer a goal, and the Ravens did
settle into a solid offensive pace the rest of the half as Noguchi
and junior forward Amanda Panaro (Rockland, Mass.)
each had scoring opportunities, but just missed getting the
go-ahead goal.
Following intermission, Franklin Pierce picked up where it left off
on the offensive side and finally got the difference-maker in the
47th minute when junior midfielder Tori Gikas (Sydney,
Australia) slammed home a rebound attempt off a
Margret Thorolfsdottir (Reykjavit, Iceland) shot
to put the Ravens up 2-1. It was Gikas' third goal of the season
and Thorolfsdottir, who last week was named to the conference's
all-rookie team, earned an assist on the play.
The Ravens put the match out of reach in the 69th minute off a goal
from senior midfielder Shona Franklin (Birmingham,
England). Franklin scored the tally after she took a pass
from Panaro, dribbled down into the lower-left corner of the box
and fired a strike to the lower-right corner of the goal. It was
Franklin's seventh goal of the season and Panaro earned an assist
on the play for her 40th point of the campaign. Both players were
named to the NE-10 First-Team on Friday.
Franklin Pierce owned a 16-9 advantage in shots, including putting
seven on goal while limiting the Panthers to just three on net.
Leon made two saves to earn the win and run her record to 12-4-1 on
the season.
For more information on Franklin Pierce women's soccer, please
visit the team's page at athletics.franklinpierce.edu(.) To follow
the program even further, please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on
YouTube (www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports), Twitter
(www.twitter.com/FPUathletics) and Facebook
(www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceAthletics).