Box Score BOSTON – Eastern Connecticut State University threw the first dart in the semifinal round of the Little East Conference women's soccer tournament Thursday afternoon. Soon after, the University of Massachusetts Boston emptied its quiver.
A year ago, Eastern (13-6-1) upset top-seeded UMass Boston on its home field in the semifinal round of the Little East Conference playoffs. This year, the second-seeded Beacons (11-4-5) were having none of that.
After Eastern freshman scoring sensation Emily Becher (Brooklyn) pushed the Warriors into the lead 19 minutes into play, it was all UMass Boston the rest of the way as the Beacons cruised to a 5-2 victory that put them into the conference championship match for the first time in their history.
UMass will play the winner of a late Thursday match between top-seeded Western Connecticut State University and fourth-seeded Keene State College. A Keene victory will move the championship game to UMass Boston, which is unbeaten (8-0-2) on its home field this year.
The third-seeded Warriors had their season-high eight-game winning streak ended in an emphatic way. After spotting the Warriors the early lead, UMass Boston scored the next five goals. A penalty kick by LEC scoring leader Krista Ledin tied the match late in the first half and Elisa Brooks' first goal of the year gave the hosts the lead for good a little more than five minutes later.
A pair of second-half goals made it 4-1 just 11 minutes into the second half, and Ledin's team-leading 23rd goal upped the lead to 5-1 14 minutes later. Eastern senior Taylor Shannon's (Waterford) second career goal proved to the be final one of the year for the Warriors, who were outshot 20-5 and managed only one corner kick. Freshman Taylor Ross (Ansonia) assisted on the goal for her first career point.
Prior to Thursday, Eastern had not lost since a 4-1 setback to UMass Boston just over a month ago on this field.
The match featured the likely LEC Offensive Player-of-the-Year in UMass' Ledin and the Rookie-of-the-Year in Becher. Becher's team-leading 18th goal of the season – the most by any player in program history not named Lisa Matukaitis – came on her only shot of the match. Ledin, in line to become the second three-time Offensive Player-of-the-Year in LEC history, picked up five of her team's attempts.
The second-best defensive team in the conference was overpowered by the LEC's No. 1 offensive unit. Eastern gave up only 23 goals all season, nine by UMass in two matches. In nine conference matches this year, Eastern allowed only 13 goals, nine by UMass.
Becher concluded her first season by scoring at least one goal in each of the final seven matches of the year – a record formerly held by Matukaitis in her freshman season of 1988 and later equalled by Daniela Marchitto in 2011. In those final seven matches, Becher totalled 11 goals and an assist, four times recording two goals in a match.
