Tori Gikas adds a goal to move into the team lead with 11
points
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Tori Gikas scored in the 81st minute for her fourth goal of the
season. She leads the team with 11 points this season.
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RINDGE, N.H. (October 5,
2011) – Senior forward Amanda
Panaro (Rockland, Mass.) scored a pair of goals on
Wednesday night to lift the Franklin Pierce University
women's soccer team to a 3-0 win over No. 17 Merrimack at
Sodexo Field in Rindge. The Ravens snapped a two-match skid and
evened their record at 5-5 overall and 3-5 in the Northeast-10,
while Merrimack suffered its first loss of the season in falling to
10-1 and 8-1 in league play.
Merrimack entered Wednesday's
contest in sole possession of first place in the league standings,
but Panaro and classmates Tori Gikas (Sydney,
Australia) and Jocelyn Leon (Lenox,
Mass.) made sure that would not be the case following this
match.
After a scoreless first half,
Panaro put the Ravens on top 1-0 in the 52nd minute when
he took a beautiful feed from Talita Pereira (Sao Paulo,
Brazil) in the lower left corner of the box and fired a
shot past the Merrimack keeper to the lower right corner of the net
for her fourth tally of the season. Panaro moved into a tie for the
team lead in goals on the play, while Pereira was credited with an
assist.
Panaro, however, would take over
the team lead in markers in the 80th minute off an
impressive singular effort starting at the midfield stripe. The
Warriors tried frantically to move the ball up field for a tying
goal, but Panaro intercepted a pass at midfield, dribbled into the
offensive end all alone and fired a shot from the top of the box
that slammed into the upper left corner of the net for a 2-0
Franklin Pierce advantage. It was her fifth of the season and gave
her 10 points for the campaign.
Gikas capped the scoring a minute
later when she struck home a rebound attempt from directly in front
of the goal for her fourth tally of the season, which also moved
her into the team lead for points with 11.
Franklin Pierce outshot the
Warriors, 12-8, including limiting Merrimack to just three shots in
the second half.
Merrimack may not have fired off a
lot of shots, but the ones they did were solid scoring chances.
Five of those eight shots found their way to the goal, but Leon
turned aside all five opportunities to earn the shutout victory.
She made four saves alone in the first 45 minutes as both teams
were trying to gain the early upper hand. Leon improved to 5-5 on
the season with the win, while lowering her goals against average
to under one at 0.98.
Franklin Pierce returns to action
Saturday when the Ravens travel to face Pace at 3:30 p.m. in New
York.
For more information on Franklin
Pierce women's soccer, please visit the team's page at
athletics.franklinpierce.edu(.) To follow the program even further,
please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on YouTube (www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports),
Twitter (www.twitter.com/FPUathletics)
and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceAthletics).