Double OT goal clinches conference title

 It took two overtimes, but the Roger Williams University Women's Soccer team downed Endicott College one-to-zero in a defensive battle on Satur­day, Nov. 5 to take the Com­monwealth Coast Conference championship title.

Defense was on full display between the top two teams in the conference, as neither team was able to score until there were three and a half minutes left in the second overtime as RWU senior forward Katie Fusaro netted the winning goal. It was not the first chance Fusaro had to give the Hawks the conference crown, as she had a shot bounce off the post just five minutes prior.

From the start both defenses showed very little signs of weak­ness. Endicott was able to get two shots on goal in the first half, both of which would be stopped by sophomore goal­keeper Stephanie Jaques. For the Hawks, they were unable to break through the Endicott defense until the final two min­utes of the first half when they were able to get two shots on goal.

There were multiple times throughout the game where RWU was able to get behind the Gulls' defense, but unable to capitalize on those breakaway attempts. That didn't discour­age the Hawks' head coach Tim Moody.

"We were getting the break­aways and we were creating scoring opportunities," Moody said. "[The mindset was] let's not give anything away and then something will open up, and it did in the end."

After a second half filled with much of the same defensive-filled action, and the occasional breakaway by the Hawks, regu­lation ended in a 0-0 stalemate. The conference championship then continued into sudden death overtime. Despite valiant efforts from the Hawks, they were unable to score once again while still holding Endicott scoreless in the first overtime period.

By the second overtime, the Hawks were able to show their superiority over Endicott with more breakaway attempts. Only a minute and a half into dou­ble-overtime, Fusaro had the aforementioned shot that just bounced off the post. Five min­utes later Fusaro made RWU CCC Champions.

It was a great way to end the CCC careers of the eight seniors on the squad. One of them, Laurin Pendleton, was unsure if she would even be able to play at all this season. A knee injury put the rest of her college soc­cer career in doubt, but she was able to recover in time to play in the tournament.

"Coming through with this kind of injury, I'm so lucky to actually be able to play. Most people are done for the rest of the season," Pendleton said. "There was no way I wasn't go­ing to play my senior year; these are my best friends. All eight of us have played together all four years and there was no way I was going to take a year off. [Winning the CCC] is just the best feeling in the world."