Women’s Soccer Holds Off Gordon, 5-2

BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott women's soccer team remained unbeaten in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) play on Saturday afternoon with a 5-2 league victory over cross-town rival Gordon College at Hempstead Stadium. 

Ahead 2-0 at halftime thanks to a pair of penalty kick goals from Mary Verneris (Hamden, Conn.), the Gulls needed three more goals in the final 45 minutes of play to hold off a late rally from the Fighting Scots. 

Endicott stymied Gordon's comeback bid via goals from Sharlotte Pernice (West Springfield, Mass.), Rachel Hanna (Chelmsford, Mass.), and Hannah Pesci (Windham, N.H.). Pernice sparked the Gulls offensively with her fourth tally of the season at 50:16 – just 4:23 after the Fighting Scots cut into the deficit at 2-1 – while Hanna scored at the 62:21 mark and Pesci found the back of the net at 82:41 to lock up the win.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• The Gulls are 22-7-3 all-time versus Gordon.
• Endicott also has won the last four matchups against the Fighting Scots, and is 19-0-2 since its last loss in the all-time series (L, 2-0, 9/14/2002, Wenham, Mass.).
• Pernice netted her fourth of the season by winning a ball off of a defender in the box and shooting lower right corner.
• Meanwhile, Hannah tallied her team-leading 10th goal of the season when she spun off of a defender and lofted a shot over Gordon's goalkeeper from the left corner of the box.
• Pesci sealed the victory for the Gulls with an outstanding individual effort, which included beating a defender well outside the box and rifling a shot into the upper left corner of the net from roughly 30 yards out.
• Shelby Elwell (Litchfield, Conn.) made five saves in the win (5-1-1).
• Both teams tied 20-20 in shots (Endicott 11-4 first half | Gordon 16-9 second half). 

FOR THE FOES

• Lexi Potter (South Glens Falls, N.Y.) jump-started Gordon's comeback bid just 53-seconds into the second stanza when she tucked a low shot into the left corner of the net after she gathered a failed clearance and broke away from her defender down the right flank.
• Kay Silveira (Bristol, R.I.) made it 4-2 with a header that found its way past Elwell through traffic directly off of Kasey Hayes' (North Easton, Mass.) corner kick at 66:02.
• Kalie Denty (Marshfield, Mass.) stopped six shots in the loss (4-3-1).

WHAT'S NEXT

Endicott (6-3-1, 3-0-1 CCC) hosts Nichols on Monday, October 9 in a CCC matchup at 1 PM. Gordon (4-4-2, 1-2-1 CCC) travels to the University of New England on Tuesday, October 10 for a league game at 4 PM. 

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(Photo credit - David Le '10)