Women’s Soccer Ties Stockton for First Time

Photo by Pauline Park

The Roadrunners played in their first New Jersey Athletic Conference game of the year on Saturday, as they hosted conference rival Stockton University.

The Roadrunners broke a 21-game losing streak against Stockton, as they tied the Ospreys 1-1 for the first time in school history.

Fourth year head coach Abby Shiffler thought that the Roadrunners needed to play strong defense throughout the entire game.

“We will need to do a very good job defensively,” said Shiffler. “They are not allowing many goals, but we are scoring a lot; we need to limit their chances and capitalize on any and every chance that we have offensively.”

After going scoreless through the first 52 minutes in a game that was considered a defensive battle, Stockton got on the board first with a header by freshman midfielder Abigayle Musto in the 52nd minute of the game, her second goal of the year. Junior midfielder Adrianna Boucher provided the assist, her third of the year, which leads the Ospreys. Then, in the 67th minute of the game, freshman forward/midfielder Michaela Knoblock ended the Ospreys’ string of six consecutive games and 636 consecutive minutes of not allowing a goal, by scoring unassisted on a putback hard shot off the Ospreys’ goalkeeper Nicole Pallante to tie the game at 1.

The two teams went another 43 minutes of scoreless soccer to finish in a draw. With the tie, the Roadrunners are now 5-0-1 overall, their best record through six games since 2000.

Meanwhile, Stockton failed to put a game in the win column for the first time since opening the season with a 2-0 road loss in a nonconference game against Salisbury University.

Sophomore forward Gabriella DiLiberto believed that the Roadrunners needed to come out strong against conference rival Stockton.

“We’re going to have to come out really, really hard,” said DiLiberto. “I feel like our whole team is overly excited for it.”

The Roadrunners were back in action yesterday when New York University came into town for a nonconference matchup. The Roadrunners lost to the Violets by a score of 2-1, suffering their first loss of the season. This was the first time that the Roadrunners have hosted New York University since Nov. 7, 2007, which ended in a 2-1 victory for the Roadrunners.

The Roadrunners will be back in action when they travel to Wayne to take on the William Paterson Pioneers in an NJAC matchup.

pmcguire@ramapo.edu