Junior All-American Gabriela Demoner's 50th career goal was a
memorable one as her lob from midfield capped a late Franklin
Pierce rally and send the Ravens through to Sunday's NE-10
Championship. PHOTO BY Greg Wall.
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Demoner's miracle lob caps second-seeded Ravens rally in final
four minutes to slip past fourth-seeded Owls and advance to eighth
NE-10 Championship match
Boxscore
RINDGE, N.H. (November 6,
2008) - Top-seeded Franklin Pierce University, ranked
13th in this week's National Soccer Coaches Association
of America (NSCAA)/adidas Division II poll, scored twice in the
final four minutes of regulation to stun upset-minded and
fourth-seeded Southern Connecticut State University, ranked seventh
in this week's NSCAA/adidas East Regional poll, in semifinal round
action of the 2008 Northeast-10 Conference women's soccer
championship at Sodexo Field this evening.
Junior All-American
Gabriela Demoner (Curitiba, Brazil) capped the
Franklin Pierce comeback with a miraculous lobbed volley from the
halfway line that crossed the goal line with just a second left in
regulation. With the final seconds ticking away, Demoner collected
a loose ball at the center of the pitch, wheeled and lobbed a high
arcing volley that caught Southern Connecticut State sophomore
goalkeeper Katie DiDio (Vernon, Conn./Rockville)
helplessly off her line, bouncing at the back of the net to send
the Ravens through to the championship match for the eighth time
since joining the NE-10 prior to the 2000 season. The goal was the
50th of Demoner's three-year career at Franklin Pierce
(8th all-time).
Junior All-American Rachel Smith, the NE-10 Defensive Player of the
Year, pushed forward and netted the equalizer with less than four
minutes left in regulation. PHOTO BY Andrew
Katsampes.
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Franklin Pierce (15-3-1, 11-2-1
NE-10) will face second-seeded The College of Saint Rose (16-3-1,
11-2-1 NE-10) for the NE-10 Championship on Sunday at Sodexo Field
at 1 p.m. The contest will be a match up of the two teams which
shared the NE-10 regular season championship. The Ravens earned the
top seed as a result of their 1-0 regular season victory over the
Golden Knights back on September 17 in Albany, N.Y.
Saint Rose advanced to the final
with a 2-0 victory over sixth-seeded University of Massachusetts
Lowell (8-5-5, 6-3-5 NE-10) in today's other semifinal in Albany.
Southern Connecticut (12-5-2, 9-3-2 NE-10) must now await word of a
possible NCAA Tournament bid on Monday.
Franklin Pierce also got a goal
from junior All-American Rachel Smith (Chichester,
N.H./Bible Baptist School (Pa.)), while senior
Gina DellaRose (Prospect, Conn./Woodland Regional)
scored for Southern Connecticut.
Franklin Pierce senior goalkeeper
Brittany Ester (Toms River, N.J./Toms River East)
made three saves to give the Ravens a shot at the comeback. DiDio
made eight stops for Southern, who were out-shot by the Ravens,
14-5 for the match.
Demoner's miracle volley capped a
nearly improbable comeback for Franklin Pierce as upset-minded
Southern Connecticut appeared headed for its second NE-10
Championship match since joining the Conference in 2000. The Ravens
pushed Smith, the NE-10 Defensive Player of the Year, to the front
line in search of an equalizer and the move paid off as she took a
touch pass from sophomore All-American Angelika Johansson
(Falkenberg, Sweden), the NE-10 Player of the Year, and
fired a low drive from the right channel past DiDio with 3:46 left
in regulation.
Senior goalkeeper Brittany Ester conceded her first postseason goal
in her two-year Franklin Pierce career, but made three saves to
give the Ravens a shot at the comeback. PHOTO BY Richard Orr
Sports Photography.
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Southern opened the scoring in the
20th minute as DellaRose took a square ball from the
left side by junior Katrina Cook (Westtown, N.Y./Minisink
Valley), went in one-on-one with Ester and fired a low
shot from just inside the 18 past the charging keeper. The goal
snapped Franklin Pierce's string of nine-straight postseason
shutouts (three in the NE-10 Tournament) and ended Ester's
postseason shutout streak at 861:19 (301:19 in the NE-10
Tournament).
Franklin Pierce nearly equalized
just before halftime as freshman Amanda Panaro (Rockland,
Mass./Rockland) fired a rocket from 24 yards out in the
right channel that skimmed the top of the crossbar with 37-seconds
left before the break.
Southern saw an excellent bid to
take a two-goal lead go for chance 7:44 into the second half when
Franklin Pierce sophomore back Kelly Weygand (Bridgewater,
Mass./Bridgewater-Raynham) cleared a shot inside the six
from Owls junior Danielle MacMurray (Griswold,
Conn./Griswold) that was headed into an open net. Ester
punched another MacMurray drive over the crossbar in the
64th minute.
Panaro (team-high five shots)
nearly struck again in the 68th minute when her
low-angle shot from the right side kicked off the left post. Two
Ravens were in the neighborhood to knock the rebound into an open
net, but could not come up with the ball.
