Late in their third CSAC game of the season, senior Dana Drake tallied her first goal of the season and 10th of her career to force overtime.
For the second straight Saturday, two CSAC rivals battled their way to a tie as the Lady Cavs played to a 1-1 draw against the Gwynedd-Mercy College Griffins on Sept. 29 at Gwynedd-Mercy’s home field.
This brought the Lady Cavs to remain unbeaten in the Colonial States Athletic Conference at 1-0-2 and 2-5-2 overall.
“Going into this game we felt a lot of weight on our shoulders knowing that Gwynedd-Mercy was a big rival,” junior Bree Thompson said. “As much as we were nervous, we were just as excited.”
For the most part we controlled the game and had a lot of good opportunities to score it just never works out in our favor of the ball going into the net.”
The game was not going in the Blue and White’s favor as the Griffins took an early lead with a goal by Alyssa Figeroa. She received a pass from Michelle Pool and broke out to send the ball past Cabrini’s senior goalkeeper Maddie Edwards.
While the scoreboard showed a Griffins lead, the stats showed a different game in the first 45 minutes.
Edwards had a pair of saves and Gwynedd-Mercy had four shots as opposed to Cabrini’s two. Cabrini also secured three corner kicks as opposed to two for the Griffins. Despite the favorable numbers, the first half ended with the Lady Cavaliers trailing, 1-0.
“For the most part we controlled the game,” Thompson said. “We had a lot of good opportunities to score. It just never works out in our favor of the ball going into the net.”
But Cabrini was not going to go down without a fight in the second half. From the start of the half, they looked for ways to tie the game up and force overtime.
With time winding down, the Lady Cavs had one last chance to knot the score. Sophomore Melissa Scanzano made a perfect touch pass that put Drake in the clear in the penalty area. She gained control in a scrum and blasted the ball past Griffins goalkeeper Jessica Tadley to tie the game.
“It was about four minutes left in the game so we knew we had to make moves,” Scanzano said. “I was surrounded by three defenders so I knew I had to get rid of the ball and saw Drake in the far corner. I put it on her left foot and she put it to the net.”
Drake’s goal with 1:33 remaining in the game sent the two teams into an extra 20 minutes. In those two overtimes neither team could capitalize. Cabrini did grab a pair of corner kicks and four shots in the overtime.
“All the CSAC teams are gunning for us because I am sure they do not want to see Cabrini get another Championship on their belts,” Thompson said. “As hard as they come out, we have to come out 10 times harder.”
The Lady Cavs return to the field on Monday, Oct. 2, at 4 p.m. to face Immaculata University in a road game. Their next home game is Saturday, Oct. 6, at 12 p.m. when they host Baptist Bible College.
