NEWISA 2011 Senior Bowl Recap

December 7, 2011

Tessa Vercollone from St. Anselm tallied two goals, Sarah Hickey of Stonehill had a goal and assist and Colleen Pepin from Endicott tacked on two assists to help lead Sky Blue to a 6-4 victory over Gang Green in front of a crowd of 140 fans, friends and family members at the 2011 New England Women's Intercollegiate Soccer Association (NEWISA) annual Senior Bowl.

With 42 players in attendance, the December 4th game (held for the second consecutive year at Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass.) saw many different players score goals and tally assists in better than expected conditions for the early December match. For the losing side, Veronica Napoli (Northeastern) led the way, potting 2 goals on the day.

After an big save early by goalkeeper Lauren Brodeur (Hartford) that kept the game scoreless, Nikki Muhlberg (AIC) staked Gang Green to their first lead of the day scoring with an absolute laser strike in the 18th minute. Gang Green held the lead until the 30th minute when Hickey, who spent her first three seasons at Stonehill as their goalkeeper, continued her transformation into a goal scorer as she evened the score at 1-1.

In the 35th minute, Napoli put home her first goal of the day on a long run from midfield, leaving her opponents diving at air as her shot just eluded the Sky Blue keeper. Vercollone leveled the match again in the 39th minute when Pepin's cross found her open at the back post for her first goal of the day to take the game into a 2-2 halftime score.

The first two tallies of the second half went to Sky Blue as Danielle Clifford (Worcester St) and Mary Beth Lesbriel (Brown) scored in the 50th and 58th minutes respectively. Napoli's 2nd goal of the day came in the 67th minute as she and Ariel Teixiera (SNHU) reunited for a Rhode Island connection to cut Sky Blue's lead to one.

After a big point blank stop by Allie Horowitz (Amherst) helped to preserve the one-goal lead, Sky Blue responded with two more of their own to stake themselves to a 6-3 lead when Jackie Moscardelli (Springfield) scored in the 80th minute off a feed from her Springfield teammate Katie Mantie. Four minutes later, a blast by Hickey was redirected by Vercollone for her second goal of the day. Gang Green found the net again in the 87th minute, when Laurin Pendleton (Roger Williams), who was denied earlier on the big save by Horowitz, found the back of the net off a corner kick to finish of the day's scoring.