Box Score NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. -- Senior forward Chelsea Downer (Colchester) scored her fifth game-winning goal of the season – her second Golden Goal in Little East Conference competition – as the Eastern Connecticut State University women's soccer team finished with a share of first place with a 3-2 overtime victory over the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth at the UMass Dartmouth Athletic Complex Saturday.
In stretching its unbeaten streak to 17 matches (16-0-1) against UMass Dartmouth (11-4-2, 4-3 LEC), Eastern (9-6-2, 6-1 LEC) finishes with a piece of first place in the conference for the fifth time in the last ten seasons. As the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, Eastern gains a bye through the first round of the six-team playoffs and will host a semifinal match -- tentatively set for Thursday at 6 p.m. – against either third-seeded Western Connecticut or No. 6 seed University of Southern Maine.
Top-seeded and regular-season co-champion UMass Boston hosts the winner of a first-round match between No. 4 Keene State College and No. 5 UMass Dartmouth in the other semifinal-round match.
Eastern was picked as the conference favorite in the coaches' pre-season poll while UMass Boston was picked for fourth. The Beacons earned the No. 1 seed on the stretch of their 1-0 regular-season victory over Eastern two weeks ago in Boston.
Eastern, which has lost more than one conference match in a season only once in the last 12 years under 13th-year head coach Chris D'Ambrosio, gave away a 2-0 lead Saturday against UMass Dartmouth. The Corsairs got two goals in a span of seven minutes from Jillian Van Ness, the second one tying the match with 8:30 left in regulation.
Downer ended the match with 52 seconds left in the first ten-minute sudden-death overtime period when she scored her ninth goal of the season. Three weeks ago, Downer's Golden Goal with six minutes left in overtime gave Eastern a 2-1 home victory over 2011 LEC regular-season champion Keene State.
Senior Daniela Marchitto's (Orange) team-leading 10th goal of the season on a penalty kick in the 12th minute gave Eastern an early lead and the Warriors made it 2-0 five minutes into the second half on Tamar Merheb's (Bethel) third goal on a pass from Kelly Wallace (South Windsor). Already the program's career assist leader, Wallace tied the season record with her 13th assist. Wallace has at least one assist in each match in the current four-match unbeaten streak and has totaled nine helpers in the last seven matches.
The Warriors conclude the regular season on season-highs of three straight victories and four consecutive matches without a loss.
