Women defeat RIC for first Little East victory

Julia Carone shields the ball from a New England College player in the game in Sept. 15 at Dave Wolk Stadium. Photo by Devin Poslusny 
 

On the road in Providence, Rhode Island, Castleton’s women’s soccer team secured a 4-2 win over the Rhode Island College Anchormen behind goalie Lauren Henderson’s stellar play.

The win stops a two-game skid in which the Spartans were outscored a combined 9-2 by their opponents.  Even larger though, is that it marks the first official Little Eastern Conference victory for the team.

The victory pushes the Spartans to a 3-5-0 record and 1-1-0 in the LEC. The Anchormen fall to 3-5-0 with a 1-1-0 LEC record following their defeat.

Castleton wasted no time, scoring a goal in the first 1:17 of game time. Taylor Mann collected a pass from Julia Carone and the former sent it right past RIC goalie, Carissa Gaglione. Twenty-five minutes later, Katie Sanders connected with Makenzi Bellando, giving the Spartans a 2-0 lead.

RIC wasn’t going to go down without a fight however. In the opening minute of the second half Anchormen forward, Soleil Galagarza, scored an unassisted goal to cut the lead in half.

But the Spartans responded by scoring two unanswered goals.

The first came off an assist from freshman Natasha Silva that Bellando finished for her third goal of the season. The second was scored by Rylee Nichols, who took the ball herself to notch her fourth goal of the season. The two scores gave the Spartans a 4-1 lead going into the last 25 minutes of game time.

The Anchormen made a late push behind a goal in the 89th minute by Audra Garcia, however it was too little too late and the Spartans were able to close the game out.

It was a shootout from the moment the game started, with the Spartans finishing with 12 total shots, 11 of which were on goal. The Anchormen finished with 23 total shots, 14 of which were on goal.

Henderson managed to swat away 12 of the Anchormen’s shots to give herself 44 saves on the season. RIC’s goalie, Gaglione finished the game with seven saves.

The Spartans will look to improve to 4-5-0 tonight under the lights as they face UMass Boston in a Little Eastern Conference matchup that is sure to excite. The Beacons enter the game 5-3-0 and are on a three-game tear. The Spartans will be trying to end that win streak at three.

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