ALBANY, N.Y. – Tonight's match featuring a pair of sides that have combined for 15 Northeast-10 Conference Championships lacked its historical drama as The College of Saint Rose struck twice in the opening 23 minutes and made the most of its opportunities to upend Franklin Pierce 3-0 at Sullivan Field at the Plumeri Sports Complex.
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Senior forward
Nina Predanic scored twice, including her fourth game-winner of the year, to notch her 100th career point and senior back
Deanna Trongone had a goal and an assist to lead the Golden Knights (7-0-1/4-0-1 NE10) who are ranked #10 in this week's United Soccer Coaches National Poll.
Meanwhile, junior keeper
Marika Laurendeau recorded a pair of saves in each half to keep the Ravens (3-4-1/2-3-0 NE10) in check as they generated a 4-3 shot-on-goal advantage.
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Predanic's finishing acumen was on display early. She gathered in a through ball from senior midfielder
Morgan Burchhardt and lined home a shot with only 12:07 gone by. Ten minutes later, Trongone drove a free kick from outside the area that ricocheted in the middle of the box before floating underneath the crossbar. Predanic wrapped up the scoring in the opening eight minutes of the second stanza after she drove home a low shot off a feed from junior midfielder
Sanja Ratkovic.
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Looking ahead, both sides return to the pitch for conference dates Saturday. The Golden Knights host league leader Stonehill at 2:00 pm in the first half of a doubleheader as the men's squad will follow with a 4:00 pm NE10 match versus Southern New Hampshire. Meanwhile, the Ravens travel to Waltham, Mass. to meet Bentley.
Notes: Saint Rose is the top-ranked team in the United Soccer Coaches East Region Poll for the third consecutive week…The Golden Knights are the only squad in the NE10 without a loss…Predanic is just the seventh player in program annals to reach the 100 point mark…Laurendeau leads the conference with a .905 save percentage and a 0.49 goals against-average…Predanic is second among the league leaders with eight goals…She was named the NE10 Player of the Week, Laurendeau the Goalie of the Week, and freshman forward
Olivia Boucher the Rookie of the Week on Monday…The Golden Knights have now shut out four of their eight opponents and have yet to allow more than one goal in a match…They have also outscored their foes 23-4, including 14-0 in the first half…Eight different players have at least one goal.
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