Box Score
MANSFIELD, Conn. – Eastern Connecticut State University and Western Connecticut State University played 83 consecutive minutes of scoreless soccer in their Little East Conference women's soccer semifinal match Wednesday night at Rick McCarthy Field.
Unfortunately for the top-seeded Warriors (10-5-3), however, the fourth-seeded Wolves (13-7-2) already had firm control of a two-goal lead after the first seven minutes and they went on to a berth in their tenth straight championship game appearance with their 2-0 victory.
WestConn was coming off a 4-1 first-round win Saturday against visiting fifth-seeded Rhode Island College while Eastern had been idle for a week since a scoreless tie against visiting Rhode Island had given the Warriors their first regular-season title since sharing the 2018 crown.
In Saturday's championship game on the road, WestConn shoots for its sixth playoff title in its tenth straight finals appearance and 13
th crown overall in the 25-year history of the championship. The Wolves will play at three-time defending champion and third-seeded University of Southern Maine, which scored 4:24 into overtime to eliminate second-seeded and host Keene State College. A win in the finals would give Southern Maine its fourth straight title – matching WestConn's accomplishment from 2015-2018.
A .500 team on the road this year, WestConn handed Eastern its home loss (5-1-2) of the season in eight contests. The Warriors had shut out the Wolves, 1-0, in the regular-season meeting exactly two weeks ago at Rick McCarthy Field and were aiming to post two straight wins over the Wolves for the first time since capturing its last LEC playoff title 14 years ago.
Eastern, which had given up more than one goal in an LEC regular-season match only once this season (to Southern Maine), found itself in an immediate 2-0 hole Wednesday after WestConn's top two scorers each netted one in the first seven minutes. Sophomore forward Shannon Anderson scored her 11
th of the season just 73 seconds into play when she headed in senior Hannah Blacher's corner kick to make it 1-0, and Blacher converted a penalty kick – her seventh goal of the season -- six minutes later after being tripped up in the box.
Eastern played its first match this year without first-year forward
Michaela Gasparri (Prospect), the team's leader in goals, assists and points who is one of five players in the LEC with double-digit goals.
Eastern sophomore keeper
Alex Ignatowicz (Coventry) made three point-blank saves – kicking out two of them – to keep the Warriors within striking distance until she gave way to junior keeper
Kaeden Dublin (Maple Grove, MN) with 17 minutes left.
The Wolves nearly made it 3-0 with 16 minutes left in the first half when freshman forward Madelyn Dwyer outran an Eastern defender on the left side of the goal and had an open shot from close range, but Ignatowicz blocked the low drive. Five minutes into the second half, freshman forward Morgan Marcuss had an uncontested shot along on the right save, but Ignatowicz against kicked out the bid. Seven minutes left senior defender Sophia Onek again gave the Wolves a scoring opportunity but her blast from close range was right at the keeper.
Junior keeper Gracen Regan of WestConn made five saves while Ignatowicz and Dublin combined for five. Both teams had 11 shots. The hard-charging WestConn defense allowed Eastern only three corner kicks.
