Ithaca Secures Top Seed In E8 Playoffs

Ithaca Secures Top Seed In E8 Playoffs

Bookmark and Share

ITHACA 2, HARTWICK 1 
The Ithaca College women's soccer team pulled out a 2-1 win over Hartwick Saturday, as the Bombers used two second half goals to defeat the Hawks. The win secures home field advantage for the Bombers in the Empire 8 playoffs, marking the third-straight year the conference tournament will be held at Carp Wood Field.
 
Sophomore Taylor Baranowsky and junior Sarah Woychick each scored for the Bombers in the conference victory. Ithaca dominated in shots, recording 24 to Hartwick's three. The Bombers also held a large edge in corner kicks, earning nine to Hartwick's two.
 
Despite Ithaca's heavy shot advantage the Hawks scored the game's first goal, converting on a header off a corner kick at 28:53. Hartwick's goal marked the only score of the opening frame, sending the game to the half with the Hawks holding a 1-0 lead.
 
The Bombers struck first in the second half, evening the contest in the 64th minute. Hartwick's goalkeeper made a save on a shot from Woychick, but sent a large rebound back into the goal mouth. Baranowsky took advantage, sneaking a shot past the keeper on the rebound for her second score of the season.
 
Ithaca would pull ahead at 84:33, as Woychick netted her fifth of the season on a shot to the low right corner from the top of the box. Woychick's tally put the score at 2-1, securing the victory for the Bombers.


STEVENS 2, ST. JOHN FISHER 1
A dominating first half led the Stevens Institute of Technology women's soccer team to their tenth win of the season as they defeated Empire 8 Conference foe St. John Fisher College 2-1 on senior day at the De Baun Athletic Complex.

The loss dropped Fisher's record to 6-10-0 (4-3-0).

Stevens (10-5-0, 5-2-0) controlled play in the first 45 minutes as they outshot St. John Fisher 13-2. The Ducks' first opportunity came in the 17th minute when senior Georgia Johnson's shot hit the crossbar and a follow from senior Stephanie Basile missed.
 
Ten minutes later Stevens' leading goal scorer sophomore Raba Nassif notched her 13th goal of the season as she beat the defense and finished between the legs of the Cardinal's keeper.
 
In the 34th minute Nassif followed a shot by senior captain Ann Heine and struck again for her 14th goal of the season to give the Ducks a 2-0 lead.
 
St. John Fisher (6-10-0, 4-3-0) opened up the second half with a series of shots on the Ducks' freshman goalkeeper Lindsey Mahnken, and got on the scoreboard in the 61st minute when midfielder Taryn Guinta connected off a cross into the box.
 
Despite being outshot in the second half, the Ducks were able to hold off the Cardinals to gain sole possession of 3rd place in the Empire 8 standings. The win, which clinched a berth in the Empire 8 tournament, was head coach Jeff Parker's 200th in his career at Stevens.


NAZARETH 3, UTICA 0
Host Nazareth closed out its Empire 8 Conference schedule in women's soccer Saturday as the Golden Flyers dominated Utica for a 3-0 victory at Golden Flyer Stadium.

Nazareth, ranked 22nd nationally in Division III, improved to 12-3-1 overall and 7-1 in conference games. Utica dropped to 5-10-1 and 1-6. The Golden Flyers will be the second seed for next month's conference tournament as Ithaca claimed the top seed Saturday by virtue of a 2-1 win over Hartwick. Nazareth has a pair of non-conference regular-season road games remaining -- Tuesday at William Smith at 4 p.m. and Saturday at Skidmore at 12 p.m.

Against Utica, Nazareth unleashed 24 shots at Pioneers' goalkeeper Keri Berkowitz and the Golden Flyers finally broke through five minutes before halftime as freshman Rachel Dise netted her third goal of the season after accepting a feed along the left side of the box from junior Briana Vibbard.

Nazareth continued to dominate in the second half as graduate student Christine Belding scored her seventh goal of the season off an assist from sophomore Michaela Soules in the 64th minute. Junior Danielle Wilkin then completed the scoring in the 74th minute following a nifty individual move that enabled her to bury a shot into the upper left corner of the goal for her fourth goal of the season.

Nazareth had a 7-4 advantage in corner kicks in addition to the 24-7 edge in shots. Sophomore Allison Dobles made four saves to record her fourth shutout of the season. Perhaps her toughest save came in the first half with the game still scoreless. Dobles made a finger-tip stop on a shot by Utica's Alana Fitzpatrick to preserve the shutout.


ELMIRA 1, ALFRED 0
With one swing of her leg, Courtney Burgazli '16 broke a 0-0 tie with just under three minutes remaining and lifted the Elmira College women's soccer team to a 1-0 road victory over Alfred University. The win moves the Soaring Eagles back to .500 (6-6-2) on the season and with a result against Utica College next Saturday, EC will have qualified for any type of postseason play for the first time since 2005.
 
Tonight's victory was Elmira's fourth straight over the Saxons, the last three of which have been shutouts, and also extended their unbeaten streak against Alfred to 10 games, dating back to 2005.
 
The Purple and Gold came out attacking in the first half placing a barrage of shots on net in the first 16 minutes of play, two from Alexa Barber '15, one from Mikayla Gowett '17, one from Niki Lemper '17, and one from Mollie Hamilton '15. Alfred's keeper, Sammy Jo Shanahan, proved up to the early task, however, as she made all five saves to keep EC off the scoreboard.
 
Play would settle in from there but with few scoring opportunities, just two each, over the final 30 minutes of the half. Both of Elmira's attempts were off target while Alfred's lone attempt on goal was saved by Danielle Fournier '15, who was making her first start of the season in net. Shanahan's five early saves and Fournier's lone save led to a 0-0 game at halftime.
 
Shots continued to come at a premium in the second half as, despite the game's back-and-forth tempo, neither team could get a clean look at the goal. Shanahan again had to come up with a handful of saves in the first 20 minutes of the half, but so did Fournier who recorded three of her four total saves in an eight minute span to ensure the game remained scoreless.
 
Again, both offenses went stagnant as time in the second half ticked down, however the dispossession of an Alfred player in Elmira's defensive half would lead to the game-deciding goal. Hamilton received the ball and started the break with Burgazli and others running with her. Hamilton carried the ball to the left side of the 18-yard box and sent a high-floating cross towards the top of the 18 to where Burgazli had slowed her run. Burgazli settled under the ball and fired a volley at net. The ball, which was slicing from left to right as it flew through the air, screamed past a diving Shanahan and into the back of the goal, putting EC up 1-0 with just 2:54 on the clock.
 
From there, Elmira's stout defense did the rest, not allowing a single Alfred shot in the final 2:54 to secure the 1-0 victory. In fact, the Purple and Gold held the Saxons without a shot for the last 28:14 of the second half as they relinquished just seven total shots all game. The seven shots are the fewest EC has given up all season and the lowest total in a game since October 26, 2013, which was also against Alfred, when EC saw just one shot taken.


HOUGHTON 3, University of Rochester 0
Houghton College scored twice early in the second half to break open a 1-0 game against the University of Rochester women's soccer team, going on to win 3-0 on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Yellowjackets (5-7-3) lost their final non-conference game of the season despite outshooting the Highlanders (8-6-1) 18-12 and earning six corners to Houghton's two.
 
The Highlanders would strike first in the 30th minute when Jessica McDowell would score her first of the season after an assist from Stephany Ellison.
 
Coming out of the halftime break, Houghton would then score twice in the first five minutes of the second half to put the game out of reach.  Team leading scorer Ellison would scorer her 18th of the season off a long shot from the edge of the 18-yard box lofting a shot over UR keeper Aubrey Jaicks' reach.
 
Just over two minutes later, Bailey Shattell would make the score 3-0, scoring unassisted.  It was her second score of 2014.


SCHOOL CONF OVERALL
Ithaca 7-1 13-2
Nazareth 7-1 13-2-1
Stevens 5-2 10-5
St. John Fisher 4-3 6-10
Hartwick 3-3-1 7-7-1
Elmira 2-3-2 6-6-3
Houghton 2-4-1 8-6-1
Utica 1-6 5-10-1
Alfred 0-8 3-12-2