The Plymouth University wom-en?s soccer team was shutout by visiting Salem State College, 2-0, on a cold Tuesday night at Panther Field in a non-conference game. In a game that was fast paced, Plymouth had a hard time generating any offense and did not slow down the Viking offense as they went on to score two goals in the first half. Much of the half was dominated by Salem State and the Panthers were unable to pen-etrate the Vikings strong defense.
Salem opened up scoring in the 33rd minute on a shot ten yards out by Emily Mead that sailed just over Plymouth State sophomore keeper Haley Quinones and into the back of the net. Aggressive play followed from both teams and the pace of the game brought about errors and poor play. Salem continued to badger the Plymouth State defense with shot after shot, but great play from freshman back Allison Frobey and senior back Cathy Berei held the Vi-kings attack. The Panthers’ had their chances in the half where Berei sent in a ball only to be headed just wide of Salem goal by sophomore Casey Bishop. A foul on freshman Kelsey MacDonald set up a free kick for the Panthers just outside the box in the remaining minutes of the half. It was chipped over the wall only to be cleared by the Vikings defense. Salem State struck again with only a minute left to play in the first half off of a corner kick by Therese Lefe-bvre and put in by Amy Vershoor to extend the Vikings lead to 2-0 at the end of half.
The Panthers came back with fire as they controlled most of the play early in the second half. Senior Katie Sheridan started the attack with her rocket from the right side just miss-ing goal. Freshman Krista Pettrey followed on a cross to fellow fresh-man Mary Kate Cunningham who ran on to the ball but couldn?t get a foot on it. Plymouth?s opportuni-ties kept coming with 30 minutes left when a Panther corner kick sailed off the head of Sheridan and to the feet of Pettrey, but was shot just high of goal. Pettrey struck again with under ten minutes to play in Plymouth?s best chance when her shot was beautifully stopped by Edwards thus ending the game and preserving the shutout.
Last Saturday, the Eastern Con-nectcut State University women?s soccer team won a battle of the Little East Conference unbeaten with a 4-0 win over Plymouth State University at Thomas Nevers Field in Connecticut. The win is the third in the last four outings for Eastern which defeated Plymouth State for the fifth straight season after losing 11 of the first 12 matches in this series. The teams entered play sharing first place in the conference. Sophomore forward Meghann Booth registered her second career two-goal game and junior back Megan Taylor contributed a goal and an assist for Eastern.
The loss snapped a three-game wining streak for Plymouth State (7-2-1 overall, 2-1 LEC), which had won each of those matches by shutout behind sophomore Hayley Quinones, who entered action as the conference leader in goals-against average. Plymouth?s defense surren-dered four goals after allowing only four goals in the first nine games this year. Booth scored twice in the first half to give the Warriors a 3-0 half-time lead. Junior midfielder Nicole Swantee?s first goal of the year off a free kick by Taylor gave Eastern a 1-0 lead in the fifth minute of play. Booth followed with her third goal of the season five minutes later after carrying down the sideline, then made it 3-0 in the 24th minute following another long carry down the sideline. Taylor?s third goal of the year 10 minutes into the second half came on a header off a pass from junior forward Jen Ferrari.
Plymouth falls to 7-3-1 on the sea-son and are set to take on archrival Keene State on Saturday at 1pm at Panther Field.