Women's Soccer Tops USJ 4-1 as LaFrancesca Reaches 100 Wins
Lasell College women's soccer coach Vito LaFrancesca recorded his 100th career victory at Lasell knocked off USJ 4-1 on Wednesday afternoon.
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. (10/8/14) – The Lasell College women's soccer team remained undefeated in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference with a 4-1 win at the University of St. Joseph's of Connecticut on Wednesday afternoon. The victory was career victory number 100 for Lasers head Coach Vito LaFrancesca who has a career record of 100-41-10 in his eighth season at the program's helm. The Lasers improved to 8-4 on the season and 6-0 in league play while the Blue Jays slipped to 6-5-1 overall and 3-2-1 in GNAC matches.
Bridget Lynch (Dover, N.H.) scored a pair of goals and assisted on another for Lasell, Megan Cullen (Amesbury, Mass.) added a goal and an assist and Kayla Lynch (Dover, N.H.) scored for the second time this season as well. Sarah LaClair (Belchertown, Mass.) made three saves to move her record in net for Lasell to 7-2 for the season.
Emily Burke (Windsor Locks, Conn.) scored her sixth goal of the season for the University of St. Joseph's and Sara Barnick (Watertown, Conn.) tallied an assist. Melissa Dodge (Watertown, Conn.) put together an outstanding performance in goal for the hosts, stopping 16 shots from Lasell while being under duress all match.
Lasell was the aggressor early in the match forcing USJ keeper Dodge into three saves in the opening 18 minutes while seeing four other shots miss the mark and earning three corner kicks in the early going. Following a Dodge save, USJ was able to get something going forward and when Sara Barnick found Emily Burke at the top of the 6 yard box on the counter, the junior forward finished by LaClair to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead in the 19th minute of action.
Lasell drew level in the 23rd minute when Megan Cullen's feed into the box found Bridget Lynch and the senior slotted home to tie the match at 1-1. Lasell went ahead 2-1 in the 25th minute when Bridget Lynch got her foot on a Devon Day corner kick in front of goal and tapped home her 12th marker of the season. USJ's Dodge made three more saves in the final 20 minutes of the half to maintain the 2-1 score line in Lasell's favor.
Kayla Lynch got into the act in the 64th minute for Lasell when her sister Bridget drove the endline and found her sister on the back post where the senior midfielder powered a shot home to make it 3-1. Megan Cullen made it a 4-1 advantage for the visitors in the 71st minute when she gathered a rebound and finished it past Dodge for her seventh goal of the season.
Caoch LaFrancesca, a 1999 graduate of Wentworth Institute, took over the women's soccer program at Lasell in 2007 following a stint as an assistant at Babson College. He has taken the Lasers to the GNAC tournament in each of his seven seasons thus far, while posting winning seasons in all seven years and double digit wins in six of the seven years thus far. He has helped Lasell capture four consecutive GNAC championships and advance to the NCAA tournament the last four years. He is the only head coach in Lasell College history to win an NCAA tournament game as his 2012 squad defeated Amherst College 3-1 in the opening round.
Lasell will host Johnson and Wales University on Saturday October 11th at 12:00 p.m. while the University of St. Joseph's is on the road to play Mount Ida College in October 11th as well with a 12:00 p.m. kick-off.