Bay Path Edges Fitchburg State, 1-0 (OT)

Ford registers five saves for Falcons

LONGMEADOW, Mass. (September 6, 2014) – The Fitchburg State women's soccer dropped a tough 1-0 decision to Bay Path College in overtime in non-conference action at Ryan Field this afternoon.

In the opening half, the Falcons came out firing, registering eight shots in the half as sophomore Samantha Zina (Abington, Mass.), senior Sierra Santos (Lakeville, Mass.) and sophomore Carolyn Ciccatelli (Rochester, Mass.) all put shots on goal only to be denied by Bay Path back stop Alma Rizvani (Prospect, Conn.) as the score remained 0-0 going into the break.

In the second frame, Fitchburg State nearly opened the scoring in the 57th minute of play as Zina was awarded a penalty kick, but the shot sailed just wide of the post to keep the contest scoreless.

The Wildcats best chance of the half occurred with less than three minutes remaining in the regulation, when freshman back Elena Helming (Maplewood, N.J.) had her shot turned away by Falcon goalie Kelsey Ford (Franconia, N.H.) to send the game into overtime with the score deadlocked at 0-0.

In the overtime stanza, Bay Path notched the game-winning tally at the 97:26 mark as Helming took a feed from junior forward Kaitlyn Hackett (Longmeadow, Mass.) and deposited the ball into the net for her first collegiate tally, resulting in the 1-0 victory.

Throughout the contest, Fitchburg State held a 18-10 margin in shot, including an 8-5 advantage in shots on frame. In goal, Ford posted five saves in the complete game effort for the Falcons, while Rizvani made eight saves the Wildcats, en-route the victory.

Fitchburg State (0-2, 0-0 MASCAC) will be back in action on Tuesday as it visits Becker College at 4 p.m. Bay Path College (1-2, 0-0 NECC) will travel to Albertus Magnus College on Wednesday at 4 p.m.