ONEONTA, NY – The only scoring on Elmore Field on Saturday came in the sixth minute of the game, as the visiting Utica Pioneers downed the Hartwick women's soccer team by a 1-0 score on Senior Day. The loss brings the Hawks to 6-5-4 on the year and 4-2-2 in the Empire 8. Utica is now 8-7-1 on the season and ended up 4-3-1 in conference play. These two teams will meet again on Elmore just days from now, as Utica comes back to town for the Empire 8 First Round on Tuesday.
Before the game, seniors Gina Fahrenholz (Scotch Plains, NJ/Scotch Plains Fanwood), Luisa Andrade (São Paulo, Brazil/The Pennington School), Julia Collado (Whitehouse Station, NJ/Hunterdon), and Cassie Fedor (Torrington, CT/Torrington) were honored in recognition of their contributions to the program.
The opening and only goal came off a rebound. Utica's Jacinta Kaminski took a shot from the right side of the box that was stopped by Sara Staup (Woodinville, WA/Woodinville), but Ro Hernandez was right there to trickle the ball over the line for the 1-0 lead. The Hawks would end up outshooting the Pioneers 8-4 over the first half, but could not equalize.
The story was similar in the second half, although shots were closer at just 6 to 5 in favor of Hartwick. The Hawks could not quite knot the game up and send it to overtime, and so had to settle for a tough loss.
Gianna Cacciola (Burnt Hills, NY/Burnt Hills Ballston Lake) led all players with four shots, Grace Byrne (Lynbrook, NY/Sacred Heart Academy) was right behind her with three of her own. Staup played all 90 minutes in net, making five saves.
'Wick ended up with a 14-9 shot advantage, although the Pioneers had a 6-5 lead in shots on goal. Corner kicks were even at three apiece.
As mentioned, these two teams will meet again on Tuesday, as the fourth-seeded Hawks host the fifth-seeded Pioneers in the Empire 8 First Round, time to be determined. The winner moves on to face top seed Nazareth on Thursday in Rochester.
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