The Hawks (10-1; 4-0) dominated the Manhattan Jaspers (3-8-1; 0-3-1) and won with a final score of 6-0 on Wednesday, Oct 2 at The Great Lawn. Freshman forward Alexis McTamney tallied one goal and three assists, senior midfielder Dana Costello contributed one goal and two assists, while senior forward Monique Plescia added two goals in the victory.
The Hawks scored early and often in the first half of the game. The first goal came in the fifth minute when McTamney took a shot that was originally saved by Jaspers keeper Maria Sanzari, but Plescia scored off of the rebound.
The blue and white continued to put pressure on Manhattan, and in the 12th minute, Costello played a ball back to freshman forward Julie Spracklin in the box. She collected it and drilled it past the keeper for a 2-0 lead. “I knew Julie was behind me and I saw the defender was going to come and get it so I kind of stepped in front of the defender and played it backwards and she placed it right into the back of the net,” Costello said.
In the 17th minute, McTamney was dribbling down the left wing and sent a low cross towards Costello. She flicked the ball with her back heel to score the third goal of the game and her third of the season.
“We were getting a lot of end line services this game which is something we’ve been practicing a lot,” Costello continued. “I have so much confidence in our freshman [Alexis] McTamney, I knew she was going to beat her girl and she did, so I sprinted near post and I just chipped it past the goalie.”
In the 29th minute of play, McTamney was bringing the ball down the wing and then sent the ball into the box where Plescia finished it by sending the ball to the bottom corner of the goal.
“Tammey made a run with the ball down the end line and she held it until the pressure came onto her and I ran into the box and finished it into the corner,” Plescia explained.
At half, the Hawks were winning 4-0. Prior to the contest, the Hawks have not had a four goal advantage at the half since November 1, 2009 against Farleigh Dickinson.
In the 48th minute, the blue and white continued to pile on the goals as McTamney dribbled the ball down the left wing and made a crossover move to cut towards goal and she fired a rocket that went perfectly into the corner of the far post.
The final goal of the game occurred in the 71st minute when junior defender Alexa Freguletti headed home a corner kick from Costello.
“I just played a driven ball to the middle of the 18 and she got on it, beat her defender, fought hard for the ball and finished it with an awesome header,” Costello explained.
The Hawks heavily outshot the Jaspers 28-5, forcing Sanzari to make eight saves for Manhattan. With the seventh shutout of their season, fifth-year senior goalie Ashley Lewis collected one save in 63 minutes of action. While junior keeper Jocelyn McCoy made a stop of her own in just 27 minutes to hold onto the clean sheet. The blue and white also held a 7-2 advantage in corner kicks.
MU gained another win when they defeated the Fairfield Stags (6-5-1; 2-1-1) on the Great Lawn Saturday night by the final score of 2-0.
With the win, the Hawks improve their overall record to 10-1 and their MAAC record to 4-0. Goals were scored by McTamney and Freguletti en route to victory.
In a back and forth game, the Hawks avoided giving up an early lead in 16th minute when a Stags player crossed it to the far post to a teammate who headed it just wide. However, in the 20th minute, the blue and white looked to capitalize as Costello sent the ball off the corner kick on the ground into the box. McTamney collected the ball and shot it as Stags keeper Kathleen Early just got her fingertips on the ball and forced another corner.
In the 28th minute, Spracklin sent a long pass down the left wing to a sprinting McTamney. She beat two defenders with a scissor move and cut right onto the top of the box and shot a low line drive past the keeper and into the corner of the goal. “Julie [Spracklin] played a beautiful ball and I just shot it into the goal,” stated McTamney.
With that goal McTamney increased her team-leading totals in goals to eight and points to 21 on the season. That goal was her fourth game-winner of the year.
Fairfield nearly tied the game with 12 minutes remaining in the first half. As Lewis came out to defend a corner kick, the ball was lobbed over her head and flying toward the goal, but sophomore defender Monique Goncalves made a header clearance off of the goal line. The game went into halftime with the Hawks leading 1-0.
In the 56th minute, Costello drew a foul in the box. Freguletti stepped out to take the penalty kick and calmly fired it into the bottom left corner of the goal to increase MU’s lead to 2-0.
With less than a minute to play, the blue and white were looking for their third goal of the game as sophomore defender Colleen Howard sent a lobbed pass down the field to Costello, collected the ball, and dribbled it past the sprawling keeper, but her shot rang off the crossbar.
MU outshot the Stags 9-7 and Lewis added four saves to complete the Hawks eighth shutout of the season. The blue and white are now 7-0 at home and have won five straight games out-scoring their opponents 12-1 throughout that stretch.
Head Coach Krissy Turner explained the importance of winning at home, “It’s hard to win on the road, so I think it makes winning at home so much more important. Even if it’s not a win, you have to get points at home”.
The Hawks will return to action on Wednesday, Oct 9 when they travel to take on Iona College for a MAAC conference showdown at 3 pm.
PHOTO COURTESY of MU Athletics
