ALBANY, N.Y. – The top-seed College of Saint Rose built a two-goal second half lead and held off a tenacious fourth-seed Bentley to advance to its ninth Northeast-10 Conference Championship Final following tonight's 3-2 victory at the Plumeri Sports Complex.
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The Golden Knights (16-2-1), ranked #11 in the latest United Soccer Coaches National Poll, will host Southern Connecticut State in Sunday's Championship Final at 1:00 pm with an NCAA Tournament automatic berth on the line. The seventh-seed Owls took a step forward with tonight's 1-0 win at American International. Saint Rose upended Southern Connecticut State 2-1 earlier this month in New Haven.
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Saint Rose put seven players in the scoring column throughout this evening's fairly evenly played match. The Falcons (10-7-2) possessed the ball for 53 percent of the match and each side generated 11 shots, although the Golden Knights engineered a slim 6-5 advantage in threats-on-target.
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Senior midfielder
Eva Frazzoni touched home a cross off the right end line from senior forward
Nina Predanic in the opening minute to afford Saint Rose an early 1-0 advantage. However, Bentley tied it at the 25:26 mark when junior midfielder Marissa Burns jumped on a deflected ball in the area and drove home a shot inside the lower right post from about 15-yards out.
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Sophomore midfielder
Theresa Durle then touched home a corner that was delivered by senior midfielder
Morgan Burchhardt and redirected by freshman forward
Olivia Boucher to put Saint Rose ahead to stay with 56:15 elapsed. Predanic made it 3-1 Golden Knights with 73:55 expired when she slipped a shot inside the left post off a play that was initiated by sophomore forward
Kaelyn Britt and senior midfielder
Sanja Ratkovic.
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The Golden Knights thus appeared to be in the driver's seat, but the Falcons made it interesting three minutes later as sophomore midfielder Dana Goulet touched home a corner kick off the foot of junior back Keagan Castles.
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However, Bentley managed to generate only one more shot that Golden Knights junior keeper
Marika Laurendeau turned aside.
Notes: The top-seed Golden Knights have won at least 15 matches in 12 of the past 17 years…Saint Rose is the top-ranked side in the United Soccer Coaches East Regional rankings for the ninth consecutive week…In addition, the Golden Knights are tops in the third NCAA Regional Poll that was posted yesterday…Predanic, the 2019 NE10 Player of the Year, continues to lead the conference in goals (17), points (47), and assists (13)…The next closest overall scorer trails her by 20 points…She is also among the top-15 in each category nationally, and stands second with eight game-winning goals…Boucher is tied for third in the NE10 with 10 goals on the year…Laurendeau is second among the league leaders with a 0.89 goals-against-average and fifth behind a 0.807 save percentage…Predanic and Burchhardt have accumulated 127 and 105 career points respectively…Saint Rose is the nation's lone squad with a pair of 100 point scorers…Predanic is now second on the College's all-time scoring list…Only former National Player of the Year Carmelina Puopolo ('14) produced more with 199 points…Burchhardt is now alone in fifth place, eight shy of moving past Eliza Whipple ('03) into fourth place…In addition, Predanic is one of a mere seven active players in the country with 30 goals and 20 assists…Burchhardt is a goal shy of becoming the eighth…The Golden Knights have outscored their foes 54-17, including 29-6 in the first half…They continue to lead the NE10 in both scoring offense (2.84) and defense (0.87)…Saint Rose came into today with the country's 16th best won-loss% despite playing the 12th toughest schedule.
Golden Knights in the NE10 Championship: Saint Rose is seeking its eighth NE10 Championship, only Franklin Pierce has won that many…The Golden Knights won five consecutive postseason championships between 2007-11, and also hoisted the trophy in 2013 and 2014.
Prolific All-Conference Honors: Saint Rose dominates the 2019 NE10 All-League list with four major honors being bestowed to student-athletes that wear a Golden Knights uniform. Furthermore, Saint Rose is represented by nine student-athletes on the All-Conference teams. Predanic was named the Player of the Year, senior back
Deanna Trongone the Defensive Player of the Year, Laurendeau the Goalkeeper of the Year, and Boucher the Rookie of the Year. All four were named first-team All-Conference picks as well, along with Burchhardt. Senior backs
Nia Brown and
Karmyn Carter were tabbed second-team picks, while Frazzoni was chosen a third-team honoree. Boucher and freshman midfielder
Sanna Rein were named to the All-Rookie team.
Excelling Academically as Well: Saint Rose has the greatest representation on the Academic All-District® Team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The Golden Knights had four student-athletes that were recognized for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom. No other institution had multiple honorees. The Saint Rose quartet consists of Predanic, Laurendeau, Brown, and sophomore back
Luisa Gaudl. As first-team All-District honorees, they have advanced to the Academic All-America® ballot. Academic All-America® honorees will be announced in early December.
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