Box Score Pittsburgh, PA – The fifth seeded D'Youville women's soccer team upset the fourth seeded La Roche Redhawks Saturday afternoon to advance to the AMCC semi-finals by the final score of 1-0.
Catie Giebner (Sicklerville, NJ/Winslow Township) scored the game winning goal in the 63rd minute to lift D'Youville over the higher seeded La Roche. The goal came off a free kick from Nicole LaVere (Clarence, NY/Williamsville East) that was misplayed by a Redhawk defender and Giebner was there to put the ball away in the pressure packed situation.
Giebner, along with Rebecca Alvira (Buffalo, NY/Mount Mercy Academy), Emily Ward (Leonardsville, NY/Mount Markham), Melissa LaVere (Clarence, NY/Williamsville East) and Terra Juda (North Tonawanda, NY/Niagara-Wheatfield) all had 2 shots as well.
Freshman goalkeeper Megan Dulniak (Cheektowaga, NY/Cheektowaga) recorded her 6th shutout of the season and second against La Roche. In front of her, Jenna Tomizzi (Buffalo, NY/Sacred Heart Academy), Ashley Long (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster), Ward and Juda blocked several shots and cleared the ball out of danger on numerous occasions.
Both teams played a tough, physical game. Lauren Walsh (Kenmore, NY/Mount St. Mary Academy) was very physical in the middle and made a difference breaking up attacks and being a physical presence on the field.
The aggressive play of D'Youville frustrated La Roche as the game went on, especially later in the second half as the Spartans began to bring wave after wave of attacks at the Redhawk back line.
D'Youville spread the ball out well and played the ball to corners well. Rachel Hermanski (Cheektowaga, NY/Maryvale) and Emily Carias (Eden, NY/Eden), along with Kailee Juzdowski (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster), were sent on numerous runs to add additional pressure. The LaVere twins, Alvira, Juda and Giebner played great touches to their teammates and created big scoring opportunities.
Kiernan Johnson (Cherry Valley, IL/Keith School) nearly added an insurance goal after Giebner's, but the shot hit the outer netting. With less than 5 minutes remaining, Juda also almost added another goal, but her shot from distance rang off the crossbar.
Both Rachel Pandolfe (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster) and Jami Cammilleri (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena) provided sparks off the bench and pushed helped create second half chances. Freshman Magan Magee (Ellenburg Center, NY/Northern Adirondack) was a scoring threat as well.
La Roche has the leading goal scorer in the conference and she failed to score a goal in each game against the Spartans this season.
The women move on to face number one overall seed Pitt.-Bradford on Wednesday, November 4th at Bradford. The semi-final game will begin at 2pm. D'Youville lost to Bradford in their only meeting this season 1-0 in the final 2 minutes.
