Army & Colgate Battle To 1-1 Double OT Draw

October 8, 2011

Army and Colgate, picked first and second, respectively, in the Patriot League's preseason women's soccer poll, battled to a 1-1 double overtime draw Friday evening at Clinton Field.

Army senior forward Errin Helbling opened the scoring when she took a long feed from sophomore Joey Molacek. Racing down the left sideline, Helbling got in behind the Colgate defense and beat the keeper with a 15-yard shot at the 33:07 mark. The goal is her third of the season, second straight in league play, and the helper is Molacek's first.

"It was outstanding taking the early lead," said third-year Army coach Stefanie Golan. "It was one of those things we talked about before the game in trying to get something early on Colgate. That was a great finish by Errin and a great ball by Joey.

"Unfortunately, we didn't continue to look for what we were successful with. That ideally was what we were looking for. Had we continued to do more of that, we could have had more quality opportunities."

Army's lead stood for almost 10 minutes before Colgate's Maddie Malone tied the game 1-1when she beat Monica Lee on a penalty kick at the 42:53 mark. Neither team was able to break the deadlock in the second half or the two ten-minute sudden death overtime periods. The tie is the first of the season for the Raiders (8-4-1, 1-0-1 PL) and third for the Black Knights (8-2-3, 1-0-1 PL).

Lee, who yielded just her sixth goal in 13 games this season, recorded a career-high eight saves. She turned aside three attempts in both the first and second half, and two in the second overtime. Army's senior keeper made two of her saves late in the second half during a Colgate spurt that saw the Raiders rip off five shots and three corner kicks over a seven-minute span.

Colgate opened that run with three straight shots with the second hitting the post and the other, a loose ball following a shot going wide that defender Molly McGuigan kicked away.  Shortly after, Lee pulled up with a pair of saves just over a minute apart, the second a header by Elise Amiola, in closing out Colgate's flurry.

Army's Kim An followed with a header as Colgate's Ashley Walsh, who recorded seven saves, posted her second rejection in the second half and her sixth of the game .

The Black Knights dominated the first overtime as they outshot the Raiders, 5-1. Army took the first five shots, the last a header by Helbling that Walsh almost bobbled while attempting to smother it on the ground in the 96th minute, followed by a corner kick.

Three of Army's shots in the overtime were wide and another was blocked. The Raiders lone shot in the first extra period by Jenna Gibney was blocked in the 98th minute, while a corner kick two minutes prior saw Lee intercept the ball as it was shooting across the goalmouth. Lee made two saves in the final period, the first in front of the net in the 106th minute and the second almost two minutes later on a shot by Jillian Kinter. Julia Stallard then blocked the final attempt of the game by Kinter with 29 seconds remaining.

"There were periods of time tonight that Army dominated, and I thought we did very well and had a lot of confidence during that span," added Golan. "There were also periods that Colgate took over the flow of the game and our backs were up against the wall, but we stood strong and did not give up too many quality opportunities.

"To give up a goal on a PK is one of those things that make you feel gutted, but I thought Monica Lee was outstanding tonight and played extremely well. We had others step up at different points in time, so we are going away from this game feeling like now we have seen a little bit of everything and have been able to stand up tall when we need to. So we feel good going into Sunday's game against Bucknell."

The goal snapped Army's three-game shutout streak and is the first scored upon the Black Knights since a 2-1 loss to Delaware on Sept. 18. It is just the sixth goal yielded by the Black Knights this season.

The Raiders outshot Army 20-15 and held an 8-4 advantage in corner kicks with Army's Helbling and Colgate's Kinter sharing game-high honors for shots with five, to include three on goal.

Army closes out its six-game home stretch Sunday afternoon hosting league rival  Bucknell. The Black Knights and Bison co-shared last year's regular-season Patriot League title with Army winning the tie-breaker to host the tournament as top seed based on its 2-1 overtime decision.

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