Ephs Women Defeats Springfield
 |
Williams was led by tri-captain Margie Fulton and Kaitlin Ellis, who scored three goals apiece, and goalie Ali Piltch had a season-high 12 saves to backstop the Eph defense.
Meg Flanagan scored three for the Pride to lead the visitors, and goalie Anne Versprille had nine saves
Williams is now 4-5 on the season, while the Pride fell to 5-6.
Flanagan opened the game's scoring with an unassisted effort only 1:20 into the game, but the Ephs bounced back only a minute later when Fulton received a pass from Emily Jablonski moving toward the goal and scored on a low shot to tie up the game. Fulton's goal sparked a bout of possession, as Williams controlled the ball for almost the entire following 10 minutes and scored three more unanswered goals. Ellis had one, and Fulton scored two more in that time frame, including the final goal of the Eph run on a quick-stick in front of the goal off a pass from fellow tri-captain Meera Sivalingam.
The remainder of the half proved to be a different story. The Pride pulled a goal back when Kelly Gallo scored on a low shot with 15:43 remaining in the half. The Ephs then picked up three penalties in the following seven minutes, and the Pride possessed the ball throughout much of the remainder of the half. Williams was able to hold off Springfield on all three opportunities behind their strong defense and Piltch, who had six of her seven first-half saves in the final 15 minutes of the half. The Ephs were also able to score a man-up goal on a free-position attempt from Lilly Wellenbach with 13:38 to play after Wellenbach picked up a groundball, ran the length of the field and was fouled on a shot attempt. Wellenbach's goal was the final score of the half, and the teams entered the break with Williams up 5-2.
The Ephs came out firing in the early going of the second 30 minutes. Ellis scored an unassisted goal 1:06 into the half, then scored again less than eight minutes later when she wrapped around the goal from left-right and shot back to her left to complete her hat trick. Wellenbach then scored on on quickstick in front of the goal off a pass from Stephanie Gallo with 18:26 remaining in the game, making the score 8-2 and forcing a Springfield time out.
Springfield came out of the stoppage fired up, ringing off five consecutive goals in the following 8:04.
Eph leading scorer Sam Weinstein then came up big for the Ephs in the game's closing minutes. First, with 7:54 remaining in the game, Weinstein streaked toward the goal, received Rebecca Bell's pass from behind the net, and scored to end the Pride run and make the score 9-7. The Pride responded with a goal of their own off the following draw, when the ball was knocked inside the Williams restraining line and picked up by Kelly Gallo, who went in on a break away and scored to make the score 9-8. Then, Flanagan scored her third goal of the game with 4:51 to play, again wrapping around the net from the left and beating Piltch to tie up the game. The Pride were unable to complete the comeback, however. Weinstein scored her nineteenth goal of the season on a free position attempt with 1:58 to play, beating Versprille high right, and Williams was able to stall for much of the remaining two minutes to claim the victory.
Williams now travels to Tufts on Saturday to take on the Jumbos at 1 p.m. Springfield will face Wellesley at noon, also on Saturday.
