Bears Claw Past Owls on Senior Day

WESTFIELD, Mass. – Bridgewater State junior forward Olivia Robarge (Pepperell, Mass.) scored her team-leading 11^th goal of the season late in the second half to propel the Bears to a 2-1 win over Westfield State in a clash between the MASCAC's top two teams from Alumni Field on Saturday afternoon.

The Bears move ahead of the Owls in the conference standings with Bridgewater improving to 5-0-1 in the league and 9-4-2 on the season. Westfield suffers their first league loss and their first loss overall since September 13, falling to 5-1 in the MASCAC and 9-4-4 overall.

The Owls struck first within the first five minutes of the game, possessing the ball in the offensive attacking zone. Westfield earned the first corner kick of the game that was crossed in by Kiana Muratsuka (Mililani, Hawaii) and found first-year Kylie Tomasetti (Northborough, Mass.) for a header from just inside the left-hand corner of the box to put the Owls up 1-0 early in the first half.

Bridgewater State had been quiet on the offensive front up until the final ticks of the half. With 20 seconds left in the half, a foul call on the Owls defense set up a 20-yard free kick for the Bears' Sydney Dewhurst. With her back turned to the net, Jenna Sweeney (Wilmington, Mass.) tapped a pass back to Dewhurst whose free kick dibbled through the traffic in front of the net and spun towards the back post to tie the game at one a piece.

The second half was a back-and-forth battle with no one gaining much of an advantage. This was until the 68^th minute where the ball found a cutting Parker on the left side. Parker found her lane and shot it at Bridgewater keeper, Logan Levesque (Bristol, R.I.). Levesque got a diving save on Parker's shot which rebounded in front of the net to forward Livie Crooks (Wilbraham, Mass.) who then proceeded to fire a return shot at the net with Levesque denying Crooks to produce a pair of spectacular saves in succession to keep the game knotted at one a piece.

The Bears finally broke the half-long tie with a goal by Robarge. Robarge found herself one-on-one with Westfield keeper Julia Robak (Chicopee, Mass.). Robak saved the first shot but couldn't get back in net in time for the return strike off the foot of Robarge to put Bridgewater up 2-1 with 16 minutes remaining in the game.

Westfield had three ensuing corner kicks and one free kick from inside the 30-yard marker, but were unable to find the back of the net.

Westfield outshot the Bears 23-5 along with six more corners but couldn't quite find the equalizer in the second half, leading to a Bears victory in what was a rematch of the 2023 MASCAC Championship game.

Westfield celebrated their seven seniors Saturday afternoon before kickoff: Delaney Parker (Orange, Mass.), Jaida Cochran (Middleboro, Mass.), Grace McDermott (Weymouth, Mass.), Bella Parrotte (East Greenbush, Mass.), Ryan Moran (Manchester, N.H.), Erin White (Plymouth, Mass.), and Sarah Fuller (Weymouth, Mass.).

The Owls have just one game remaining in the regular season slate as the Owls return to action next Saturday, November 2 on the road against the Vikings of Salem State which kicks off at 3 p.m. Bridgewater State will travel to MCLA for their final game of the season with a chance to clinch the MASCAC regular season title on Saturday, November 2 at 1:00 P.M. from North Adams, Mass.

Written by Hunter Briggs - WSU Sports Information Graduate Assistant