MANSFIELD, Conn. -- It has been four consecutive matches now, breaking the record of three straight at the start of the season for first-year forward
Emily McKelvey, in which she has recorded a goal, tallying two more under the lights at Rick McCarthy Field on Wednesday night for Eastern Connecticut State University Women's Soccer in a 2-1 win for the Warriors over Worcester State. Those two goals lifted the Lebanon, Connecticut native to 13 on the year, increasing her lead in the Little East Conference, while tying her for tenth in single-season goals for the program along with three other Eastern players.
This season, the Warriors are now 6-0-0 at home, putting them two away from their most home wins in program history at eight in a single year, which happened during the 2001 and 2018 seasons. The 2018 saw Eastern go 8-0-0 in the regular season alone, while 2010 had them going 7-0-0 at Rick McCarthy Field. The regular season home slate ends next Saturday for the Warriors when they play the University of Southern Maine, but should they qualify for the conference tournament and earn a home match, more records could fall this year on that front.
Coming into the match, Eastern was yet again ranked seventh in the region, as it took just 1:30 of McKelvey, with the help of sophomore forward
Michaela Gasparri both times, to lead the Warriors to victory on the offensive side of the ball. Just eight minutes into the match, McKelvey took a pass on the left side from Gasparri off a Lancer turnover, firing it off the hands of senior goalkeeper Ella Gumienny, before finding its way into the corner of the net.
No sooner after that goal, McKelvey had another, once again from Gasparri, on a give-and-go that started with junior defender
Jordan Fabry, giving her that program-tying 13th goal of the year. As for Gasparri, the two assists brought her season total to a team-leading and conference-leading eight assists. Meanwhile, Fabry, who had her fifth assist of the year, is second on the team and in the conference with her mark, as the offense for Eastern continues to lead the way conference-wide, now recording 38 goals on the year, while allowing only nine in 12 matches played.
Another offensive category in which the Warriors have dominated is corner kicks, in which they held a 6-1 edge overall tonight with all six coming in the second half, bringing their season total to a conference-high 102 corners. Despite only scoring twice, Eastern's offense rocketed 10 shots on goal against Gumienny, who made eight saves, including a big kick save in the second half that prevented McKelvey from earning a hat trick, as well as jumping up to stop a curving shot from the first-year later on in the half.
As for the Lancers, they would not generate many chances against junior goalkeeper
Alex Ignatowicz, who had to make just one save in the first 45 minutes, which was one of three shots that Worcester State had on goal. While she would finish with two saves in the match, the one goal she allowed came on a pass from senior midfielder Olivia Magierowski to senior midfielder Jess Forbes near the top of the box. Forbes would rifle a shot towards Ignatowicz, which found the head of sophomore forward Besiana Dauti, cutting into the Eastern lead, 2-1, with just over 11 minutes remaining.
In those final 11 minutes, Eastern would have a trio of corner kicks that would be pushed away by the Worcester State defense, before a Lancer rush in the final minute ended in a collision between Forbes and Fabry, earning the Warriors a free kick with about 33 seconds left. That free kick would be enough to send the ball away across midfield, running out the time on a Worcester State comeback to give Eastern its second consecutive victory, pushing their unbeaten streak to four consecutive matches.
With only conference play remaining for the final three matches, Eastern heads to UMass Boston this Saturday at 4:00 PM for a matchup with the Beacons. As it stands, both teams are tied atop the LEC standings at 4-0-1, making this a pivotal matchup for tournament seeding for whoever comes out on top in a tight race of the two byes. The Warriors took down UMass Boston at home last season, 2-0, moving to 2-1-1 in their last four matches against the Beacons since the 2022 season.
