With less than five minutes left in the game, it looked like the women’s soccer team would be going into overtime against Army. But the Black Knights had other ideas.
Army’s Delaney Brown scored in the 87th minute, breaking a 1-1 tie, and giving the home team a 2-1 win.
The Black Knights scored first, in the 18th minute, when forward Jen Pascucci took a cross from midfielder Ashley Emerson, and booted the ball past Red sophomore goalie Katrina Matlin. It was Pascucci’s fourth goal of the year.
Cornell (4-7-2, 1-3-0 Ivy) was able to respond in the 21st minute, when junior midfielder Kara Ishikawa headed the ball in off a pass from sophomore Jessica Schindler. Ishikawa leads the Red in goals this year, with four. Schindler also had three shots for the game, in addition to her assist.
The night saw a lot of offense from both teams. The Red took 20 shots, while Army (5-8-2, 1-1-2 Patriot) had 19. Sophomore midfielder Jessica Snyder had six shots for the Red. Ishikawa had three shots, while sophomore midfielder Whitney Hughes and senior defender Natalie Dew both had two.
Cornell seemed to have the advantage in the first half, as the booters had 15 shots to Army’s seven. But the Knights came charging back, taking 12 shots in the second half, while keeping the Red to only five.
Army’s offensive effort was rewarded at just the right time, when Brown netted her golden goal. The junior fired a shot from 25 yards out, and the ball was deflected off the hands of Matlin, and into the net. It was Brown’s sixth goal of the year, and her second game winner.
The Knights were almost certainly thinking about avenging last year’s embarrassing 4-0 loss to the Red. Ishikawa had two goals in that match, and the Red dominated in what was the team’s largest win of the 2003 season.
But the Knights have improved this season, and they were not about to concede another game. Army has played especially well of late, tying a strong Colgate team 1-1 last week. In that match, the Army defense was able to contain the Patriot League’s all-star forward Franny Iacuzzi, preventing the freshman from taking a single shot. The Red had lost to Colgate 2-0 earlier this year, with Iacuzzi scoring both goals.
Matlin had four saves for Cornell, while Army keeper Devon Collins had six.
The Red will look to break its six-game losing streak on Saturday, when Cornell travels to face Brown. The Bears are 5-8-0 overall this year, and 1-2-0 in the Ivy League. Brown ended a four-game losing streak last night, defeating Holy Cross 3-1.
Archived article by Ted Nyman
Sun Staff Writer