October 13, 2008
Rivier Edges Eagles In Tense Matchup, 1-0

Nashua - They may no longer be in the same conference, but judging by Monday afternoon’s meeting, the women’s soccer rivalry hasn’t changed much between Daniel Webster College and Rivier College.

Michaela Kopp’s (Nashua, N.H.) 20-yard boot to the far right corner beat Eagle goalkeeper Amy Waller (Berlin, Mass.) with 14:48 remaining and the Raiders held on for a tense, 1-0 victory over their longtime rivals before more than 150 patrons at Eagle Field Monday afternoon.

The win ended a five-game slide for the Raiders, who won for just the third time this season in improving to 3-8 overall.

The Eagles dropped to 5-7 overall with the loss.

The match saw numerous quality scoring opportunities and took on a playoff-type atmosphere with both squads putting forth strong play throughout.

Rivier controlled much of the tempo in the first half, bottling the ball in the Eagles end for the better part of the 45 minutes. But despite a 10-4 total shots advantage, Waller held her ground, finishing with six first half stops on the way to a season high 14, as the teams went to the break scoreless.

The Eagles took control over the first 25 minutes of the second half thanks in large part to strong midfield play from TC DiSantis (Hinsdale, Mass.) and saw two strong scoring chances thwarted by Raider keeper Kathleen Moran (Pembroke, N.H.), who would finish with seven saves on the afternoon.

In the 51st, Moran dove and batted away Eagle forward Erin Hurd’s (Centerville, Mass.) bid from 15 yards out at a deep angle, and followed with a nifty block of Rachel Schelhorn’s (Lebanon, Conn.) 10 yarder five minutes later.

With overtime looming, both teams stepped up the pressure over the final 15 minutes. Rivier’s Sabrina Carvalho (Tyngsboro, Mass.) had a golden opportunity to break the scoreless tie sending a wicked 20-yarder to the far right corner that just missed with 16 minutes remaining. Kopp would follow with the eventual gamer less than two minutes later, taking a cross-pass from Britt Geracie (Plymouth, Mass.) on the far left side and finding the far right corner past the diving Waller.

The Eagles saw one final quality chance with nine minutes to go when Kendra DeVore (Parsonsfield, Maine) threaded a pass through the defense to find a streaking Alexa Quintiliani (Manchester, Conn.) on the right side, but Quintiliani’s shot just missed the right corner and the Raiders held on over the remaining minutes.

Daniel Webster returns to action Saturday when they travel to Mitchell for a 1:00 p.m. matchup. Rivier visits Lasell Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.