Aug. 31, 2010

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - La Salle Women's Soccer could not break through the wall that was Lafayette's Lauren Smedley, who stopped 12 shots, and helped the visiting Leopards to a 2-0 victory over the Explorers at McCarthy Stadium Tuesday night.

The Explorers outshot Lafayette 17-5 in the game and held an 8-0 advantage in corner kicks. Through the first 45 minutes, the contest was tied despite a 6-2 shot edge for La Salle and two corner kicks.

Lafayette (2-0) broke the scoreless tie in the 56th minute as Janelle Pierson scored her first of the year off an assist from Machenzie Moore.

Eighteen minutes later, Jill Dozier notched her second goal of the season on a breakaway shot from about 35 yards out that La Salle goalie Gabby Pakhtigian tried to deflect over the cross bar, but the ball came up short and bounced into the net.

Smedley would make three more saves after the Leopards took the two-goal lead to earn the shutout and improve to 2-0 in net in 2010. Pakhtigian suffered the loss and is now 2-2 this season.

"I thought it was a very good overall effort from the team, they really left everything out there," said Head Coach Paul Royal. "It was very unfortunate that our execution in the final third wasn't there tonight. They were a very well coached team and kept the game very compact.

"I also have to mention their keeper, who came up with a few excellent saves that turned out to be the difference. We can definitely take a lot of positives away from the game, but we're going to have to increase our team defense to get ourselves to the next step."

La Salle (2-2) is next in action this upcoming weekend at the Hartford Tournament. The Explorers face the hosts on Friday at 7 PM, and then take on Central Connecticut State on Sunday at 11 AM.