Saint Michael's College

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Three players scored in the second half, lifting the Saint Michael's College women's soccer team to a 3-0 win over Saint Anselm College on Wednesday at Melucci Field. By virtue of the regular-season-ending victory, the Purple Knights clinched a home Northeast 10 Conference Championship first-round game on Sunday at 1 p.m.
 
Saint Michael's received votes toward this week's United Soccer Coaches national poll while placing fourth in the NCAA's NPI East Region rankings. The Hawks were seventh in the United Soccer Coaches East Region poll.
 
RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (8-2-5, 4-2-3 NE10), Saint Anselm (8-6-1, 5-4 NE10)

SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Junior Scarlett Brookes (Rockaway, N.J./Morris Knolls), 1 goal, 1 assist
• Junior Lola Follansbee (Grafton, Mass./Grafton), 1 goal
• Junior Sarah Gormley (East Moriches, N.Y./Westhampton Beach), 1 goal
• Senior Bridget Hanley (Mansfield, Mass./Mansfield), 1 assist
• Junior Sam McDonough (Walkersville, Md./Walkersville), 1 assist
• Sophomore Chloe Laizer (West Springfield, Mass./West Springfield), 5 saves

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Senior Maggie Warner, 1 save

GAME FACTS

• Saint Michael's picked up its first win against Saint Anselm since Sept. 29, 2010, and its first victory on the Hawks' home field since Sept 22, 2009.
• Saint Anselm held leads in shots (18-6) and corner kicks (4-2).
• Laizer's eighth shutout of the season put her one short of her own school mark, set last fall. She is second in program history in career clean sheets (17), short only of Trish Hannan '90 (18), and tied with Abigail Lemanski '04 for second in wins (24).
• Brookes is now alone in fifth in school annals for career goals (29).

THE ACTION

• Junior Delaney Kleinman's (Center Moriches, N.Y./Center Moriches) 24th-minute bid from 25 yards out was the first for either team sent on net, a one-hopper Warner scooped up.
• Sophomore Connie Patturelli rung the crossbar in the 27th minute, forcing a giveaway in the box before slipping a shot over Laizer and off the frame.
• In the 43rd minute, sophomore Madison Botta's try from outside the box just missed the upper left corner of the net.
• Saint Michael's broke the deadlock in the 51st minute during a corner kick sequence. Off of a failed clear, junior Julia Palmese (Berlin, Conn./Berlin) sent a shot back toward the middle of the box, where Hanley laid a pass off for Gormley, whose right-footed one-touch found the left side of the net beyond a diving Warner for the eventual winner.
• Laizer maintained the lead in the 53rd minute, diving to stop Patturelli's solo effort after a giveaway on the back line.
• The Purple Knights doubled their advantage in the 68th minute, when Follansbee headed home Brookes' cross. McDonough set up the sequence with a cross through the box for Brookes.
• Brookes cleaned up her own blocked shot by firing from outside the box in the 70th minute to make it 3-0 only 2:16 after Follansbee's strike.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S GAME

• Sunday vs. TBA opponent in NE10 Championship first round, 1 p.m.