The Golden Knights will be seeking their fifth consecutive NE-10 tournament title
By MICHAEL SMITH
Staff Writer
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 8, 2011
On Friday night, the women’s soccer team took on the Skyhawks of Stonehill College. The Golden Knights defeated Stonehill 2-0 in the second round of the NE-10 tournament championship.
The game started off very sloppy for the Golden Knights. They held possession of the ball, but very little materialized from it, mostly due to weak passing. The Skyhawks’ defense played very tight on the Golden Knights’ attackers.
Saint Rose senior Brittany Godin said the Skyhawks’ defense was “very tough, they had a lot packed in there so it was hard to get a shot off.”
“They played a lot numbers beneath the ball, every time we were playing into a striker they had two kids collapsing in on that player,” said Saint Rose head coach Laurie Darling Gutheil. She then added that the team “made some adjustments at half time and we decided not to play that ball out to flank where they could double and we decided to play the ball into the center, we wanted more opportunities then play the flank in.”
The second half started with a few very good Saint Rose scoring chances, but much like the first half, Stonehill’s defense and their sophomore goalkeeper, Amy Wheaton, kept the Golden Knights off the scoreboard.
Some Saint Rose attackers started getting very visibly frustrated. With about 28 minutes left in the second half, Carmelina Puopolo sent a corner kick into the box and it was headed to the back of the net by Godin on a rebound attempt, with an assist from Sydney Bond.
Saint Rose settled in after Godin’s goal, Brittany Barry and Puopolo each had chances to score an insurance goal but Skyhawks’ defenders deflected them before they reached the net.
Seconds after Puopolo’s attempt, with 10 minutes left in the game, Godin stole a pass in the offensive end and fired a blistering shot that was deflected by Wheaton, but still found the back of the net. The second goal from Godin put the game away, as Saint Rose tried to just protect the ball and run out the clock.
“It felt really good, I knew we weren’t going to get very many chances so the fact that we were able to score was awesome,” said Godin of her two goals.
The Saint Rose defense was solid, barring the Skyhawks from registering a shot on goal, Gutheil attributed it mostly to the weather, “with the wind in the first half we were fortunate to keep possession and keep the ball out of our defensive third for 90% of it.” Gutheil later added, “anytime your dealing with this amount of wind, the circumstances are challenging so even though they didn’t register shots on goal they still put pressure on us defensively in the second half.”
Back on October 1st, the Golden Knights hosted the Skyhawks and won the match 1-0, on the strength of a goal from Carmelina Puopolo.
The Golden Knights will take on the Merrimack Warriors at the Plumeri Sports Complex in the NE-10 Conference Championship game. Merrimack gave Saint Rose its only loss of the year, 3-0 at Merrimack on October 15th.
