Kathleen Schuckers Leads Stevens Women's Soccer to Empire 8 Final
HOBOKEN, N.J. (November 5, 2011) – In the first semifinal match of the 2011 Empire 8 Women’s Soccer Championship hosted by Stevens Institute of Technology, the Ducks defeated No. 4 seed, St. John Fisher College, 3-1. Senior Kathleen Schuckers (Lincoln Park, N.J.) netted two goals for the Ducks and assisted on another to lead Stevens to its second-straight Empire 8 Finals.
The Ducks let in an early first half goal to the Cardinals in the 9th minute of play, when Chelsea Oberkrieser took a headed pass from Alex Rohloff within the 18-yard box to tally the first score of the game.
First half play remained scoreless, but Stevens had an opportunity to knot the game at 1, on a shot by freshman Mariah Cleveland (Los Gatos, Calif.) but her strike rang off the post with just over three minutes left and the Ducks were unable to take another shot before halftime.
As the teams switched sides of the field, the Ducks seemed to turn up the intensity and rolled to three goals in the final 45 minutes to earn the victory in a hard fought contest.
Sophomore Lindsay Stoll (Bellevue, Wash.) put the first goal on the board for Stevens when she took a defensive-splitting pass from Schuckers and beat Fisher’s goalkeeper off their line to start off the 57th minute.
Just 1:38 later, Cleveland sent a through ball to freshman Ann Heine (Sammamish, Wash.) down the left side of the field. Heine then found Schuckers on a run down the middle of the field with no defender in sight and dished off the ball for the second score for Stevens.
Heine and Schuckers linked up again in the 72nd minute with a similar play, only this time; Heine’s cross was headed in by Schuckers off the goalkeeper’s hands for her second tally and the third and final goal for the Ducks.
Stevens’ senior Kaitlin McClymont (Corpus Christi, Texas) stopped eight shots in all 90 minutes of action to earn her 10th win of the season. McClymont came up big in the final 16 minutes of the contest, recording three of her saves in that time span.
Although Stevens was outshot, 16-12, the Ducks held a 6-2 advantage in corners.
In the other semifinal contest, Nazareth dropped Ithaca, 3-1, to move onto the final at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow afternoon. The Golden Flyers jumped out to a 2-0 first half lead and held the Bombers scoreless for the majority of the final 45 minutes until Ithaca found the back of the net to start the 79th minute. Naz took away the Bombers’ momentum immediately and scored just 1:07 later.
Stevens and Nazareth square off tomorrow, Sunday, November 6 for the Empire 8 Championship. Earlier this season, the Ducks and Golden Flyers played to a 1-1 draw in Hoboken on September 24.
Follow all the action on empire8.tv and live stats.