News Release
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Wildcats Advance to Women’s Soccer CACC Semifinals with 2-1 Win over Felician
WSoc: #1 Wilmington 2 - #8 Felician 1
A goal with 5:40 remaining sent top seeded Wilmington University to the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Women’s Soccer Tournament semifinals as the Wildcats defeated Felician, 2-1, in the quarterfinals on Sunday afternoon at the WU Athletics Complex.
The game, which was originally scheduled to be played on Monday at 2 p.m., was moved to Sunday to ensure the game would be played due to Hurricane Sandy.
Wilmington (11-6-2 overall) took a 1-0 leading into the final minutes of the first half, but Felician (7-9-1) tied the match with a goal in the 44th minute to head into the halftime break. Following an evenly played second half which saw the Wildcats take a 7-6 advantage in shots, the home team got a goal in the 85th minute to regain the lead.
Sophomore Morgan Fraczkowski got the scoring started in the sixth minute, redirecting a pass into the box from Brittany Rhodes with her head, scoring to the back post for the 1-0 lead. The goal was Fraczkowski’s seventh of the season.
Felician put the pressure on the Wildcats after the goal and outshot the Wildcats, 8-5, in the opening 45 minutes. Senior goalkeeper Amanda Walters made six saves in the first half, keeping the Wildcats ahead in the match.
But with less than two minutes remaining in the half, the Golden Falcons solved Walters, beating her with a long distance shot over the top. Felician’s Jordan Farley took the ball after a misclear by the Wilmington defense and struck a ball from nearly 30 yards out. The ball snuck under the crossbar and into the top left corner of the goal, tying the game right before the half.
In the second half, Wilmington had two goals called back due to being offsides, the second a close call as Jenna Quaranta came back onsides but not in time as a Wilmington shot was blocked and came right to her at the 6-yard box.
Quaranta would get a second chance, however, as Rhodes played a ball into the box form the right side with less than six minutes to play. Fraczkowski’s initial shot was blocked but the ball bounced right to Quaranta at the six-yard box and she spun and put the ball in the back of the next for the 2-1 advantage.
Felician had a set play following a Wilmington foul in the 87th minute, but Alysia Arcona’s free kick sailed over the crossbar and out of bounce, keeping the score at 2-1.
Walters made 10 saves in the match while Golden Falcon keeper Allie Couzo recorded six stops in the loss.
With the win, the Wildcat move onto the CACC Semifinals hosted by Post University on Thursday. The Wildcats will face fourth seeded Georgian Court on Thursday at 11 a.m. at Municipal Stadium. The Lions advanced on penalty kicks over No. 5 Nyack on Sunday.
