Aug. 27, 2010

Box Score

BURLINGTON, VT - For the second straight game, La Salle Women's Soccer freshman Renee Washington scored the Explorers first goal, in Friday's match it knotted the game in the 68th minute. However, New Hampshire was able to pull out the victory with the game winner with just under six minutes to play as the Explorers opened the TD Bank Classic with a 2-1 loss Friday afternoon.

After a scoreless first half, New Hampshire (1-0-1) put the first tally on the board at the 63:54 mark as Alyssa Michel crossed a ball to Drea Nogueira for the goal.

Four minutes later, Anna Dolhansky found Washington with a thru ball and she beat the Wildcat goalkeeper to tie the game. For Dolhansky, it marked her second straight game with an assist, as she also added a goal in the Explorers' season-opener last Sunday.

Washington now adds another accomplishment to her already growing resume, just two games into her rookie campaign. On Sunday, in the Explorers' season-opener, she scored the second fastest season-opening goal (2:00) in school history (behind Kristin Hextall's 37 second goal against Wagner on Aug. 31, 2007), and she also became only the second freshman in school history to tally a game winner in the season opener (teammate Kierstyn Mabey did it last year in a 4-2 win at Drexel on Aug. 25).

With Friday's effort, Washington now joins Krista Lee as the only two freshmen to score a goal in their first two games in the Blue and Gold at the start of a season. In 2000, Lee also scored La Salle's first goal in each of those contests (in the first game, she tallied at the 35:31 mark, the previous fastest goal by a freshman in a season opener before Sunday). Only nine total players in the school's 25-year history of the program have ever tallied a goal in the first two games.

Lastly, Lee, Washington, and Dolhansky are now the only three freshmen in program history to register at least a point in each of the first two games to start the season, and only 14 women have ever done it.

Only three players in the school's annals have ever started a season with points in the first three games. Those are Sara Copare in 2009 (a goal in game 1, and an assist in games 2 and 3), Alex Conley in 2008 (a goal and assist in game 1, and an assist in games 2 and 3), and the only Explorer to score a goal in the first three games, Jenni Myers in 1997 (a goal and assist in game 1, a goal in game 2, and two goals in game 3).

With just six minutes left in the game, Wildcat Amy Avitabile dribbled through the defense and took a shot from 20 yards out and found the back of the net for the eventual game winner.

La Salle (1-1) had a couple of chances to pull back even with New Hampshire, which included a shot hitting the crossbar with three minutes left and Morgan Golden helped the Explorers set up a corner chance with about a minute left. However, neither chance amounted to an equalizer.  

"It was an unfortunate result, because we played real hard, but we gave up two transition goals," said Head Coach Paul Royal. "When you have a youthful team like we do, we are going to have some growing pains. But we showed character in the way we fought back to tie the game and in the final five minutes."

The Explorers are now next in action when they face host Vermont on Sunday at 1:30 PM. The Catamounts defeated Rider in the second game of the TD Bank Classic 2-1 in double overtime.