Tori Gikas adds a goal to move into the team lead with 11 points

Tori Gikas scored in the 81st minute for her fourth goal of the season. She leads the team with 11 points this season.

RINDGE, N.H. (October 5, 2011) – Senior forward Amanda Panaro (Rockland, Mass.) scored a pair of goals on Wednesday night to lift the Franklin Pierce University women’s soccer team to a 3-0 win over No. 17 Merrimack at Sodexo Field in Rindge. The Ravens snapped a two-match skid and evened their record at 5-5 overall and 3-5 in the Northeast-10, while Merrimack suffered its first loss of the season in falling to 10-1 and 8-1 in league play.

Merrimack entered Wednesday’s contest in sole possession of first place in the league standings, but Panaro and classmates Tori Gikas (Sydney, Australia) and Jocelyn Leon (Lenox, Mass.) made sure that would not be the case following this match.

After a scoreless first half, Panaro put the Ravens on top 1-0 in the 52^nd minute when he took a beautiful feed from Talita Pereira (Sao Paulo, Brazil) in the lower left corner of the box and fired a shot past the Merrimack keeper to the lower right corner of the net for her fourth tally of the season. Panaro moved into a tie for the team lead in goals on the play, while Pereira was credited with an assist.

Panaro, however, would take over the team lead in markers in the 80^th minute off an impressive singular effort starting at the midfield stripe. The Warriors tried frantically to move the ball up field for a tying goal, but Panaro intercepted a pass at midfield, dribbled into the offensive end all alone and fired a shot from the top of the box that slammed into the upper left corner of the net for a 2-0 Franklin Pierce advantage. It was her fifth of the season and gave her 10 points for the campaign.

Gikas capped the scoring a minute later when she struck home a rebound attempt from directly in front of the goal for her fourth tally of the season, which also moved her into the team lead for points with 11.

Franklin Pierce outshot the Warriors, 12-8, including limiting Merrimack to just three shots in the second half.

Merrimack may not have fired off a lot of shots, but the ones they did were solid scoring chances. Five of those eight shots found their way to the goal, but Leon turned aside all five opportunities to earn the shutout victory. She made four saves alone in the first 45 minutes as both teams were trying to gain the early upper hand. Leon improved to 5-5 on the season with the win, while lowering her goals against average to under one at 0.98.

Franklin Pierce returns to action Saturday when the Ravens travel to face Pace at 3:30 p.m. in New York.

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).