Beacons Hold Off Owls Second Half Surge

WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State senior Delaney Parker (Orange, Mass.) tallied her sixth goal of the season, but the Owls second half push came up short in a 2-1 setback to UMass Boston in a non-conference match on Friday night from Alumni Field in Westfield, Mass.

With the Owls trailing 2-0 in the second half, Parker forced a Beacons turnover on the near sideline at the 40-yard line. She then carried the ball towards the net where she would fend off a Beacons defender and rocket a shot in between two UMass Boston players and past the diving goalkeeper in Julia Cote (Baldwinville, Mass.) to cut the deficit in half.

Less than a minute after the Parker goal, UMass Boston threatened to extend the lead back to a two-goal advantage but Kathryn Brown (Somers, Conn.) shots from inside the box was denied by a finger-tip save from Julia Robak (Chicopee, Mass.), allowing the Owls to stay within striking distance.

With 8:09 left in the game, Kiana Muratsuka (Mililani, Hawaii) delivered a corner kick to the front edge of the box to Emily Ottomaniello (Agawam, Mass.) who's header went high of the net. Then with five minutes to play, Parker settled a high-arching pass from Gabby Stolfi (Newington, Conn.) at the 30-yard line, but her shot from the top of the box missed wide right of the net. From that point forward, the Beacons would squeeze out the remaining five minutes to hold on to victory.

The Beacons got on the board in the 19^th minute off of a free kick where an initial header by Andrea Rivera (San Juan, Puerto Rico) was stopped by Robak. The ball deflected dangerously in the box where a second shot was partially blocked, pinballing to the foot of Rivera who directed home a point-blank shot into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.

UMass Boston doubled the lead with less than ten minutes to play in the half as Lucinda Cotter (North Eaton, Mass.) lofted a pass from the midfield stripe downfield where Brown ran down the pass and snuck a low shot past the diving Robak for a 2-0 lead.

The Owls had several scoring chances in the first half, two of which coming off of runouts from Parker who maneuvered her way around a sliding Cote in net, but running out of space on the end line as her tight-angled shot missed just wide of the far post.

Midway through the first half, Parker turned what appeared to be a harmless shot attempt from 25-yards out into a legitimate scoring opportunity with the shot ringing off the crossbar and out of play.

UMass Boston held a slight 18-17 shot advantage on the night. Robak (L, 1-3-2) turned in another strong performance for the Owls, registering seven saves. Cote (W, 2-0-1) collected five saves for the Beacons.

Westfield State will remain home for their next match as the Owls welcome Eastern Connecticut State to Alumni Field for a 7:00 P.M. start time. UMass Boston will travel to Roger Williams on Monday at 6:00 P.M.