Sept. 20, 2009

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - Maggie Lupinski scored her sixth goal of the season with just over 10 minutes remaining to push the Saint Joseph's women's soccer team past the visiting Syracuse Orange, 1-0, at Finnesey Field on Sunday afternoon. Freshman goalkeeper Christine Neal made four saves for her second consecutive shutout and her third of the season. The win closes out SJU's non-conference slate.

"I'm really happy with our effort," head coach Jess Reynolds said after the match. "We preach about passion, and we showed it today. We stressed keeping our defensive shape, and we did that, and it got us a shutout. It's a good win, and it's a good way to go into our conference schedule."

The teams played a back-and-forth first half, with Saint Joseph's (3-3-2) recording the only shot on goal.

In the second half, Syracuse (3-4-2) dominated the run of play early on, but Neal and the Hawk defense held strong. In the 79th minute, Lupinski took off down the left wing and received a pass from Lauren Sutcliffe. Lupinski corralled the ball before launching a shot over Orange goalkeeper Eliza Bennett-Hattan towards the top right corner. The ball caught the inside of the post and went into the net to give Saint Joseph's the lead.

The Hawks almost doubled the margin two minutes later as Lupinski once again took the ball wide down the left flank. She sent a ground cross to Lauren Sawyer, whose shot was blocked point-blank by Bennett-Hattan. Sutcliffe was there on the rebound but sent the bouncing ball over the crossbar.

Syracuse pressed until the final seconds, getting a scoring chance with just 20 seconds to go, but Taylor Chamberlain's shot bounced across the front of the goal and was cleared. The ensuing corner kick was knocked out of bounds, preserving the clean sheet for SJU.

Saint Joseph's will open its Atlantic 10 schedule on Friday at Massachusetts. Game time set for 7:00 p.m. in Amherst.