Buccaneer Comeback Effort Falls Short in 3-2 loss to Falcons

BUZZARDS BAY, Mass – The Buccaneers welcomed Fitchburg State in to a rain soaked Clean Harbors Stadium on Saturday afternoon for a MASCAC showdown. After an exciting 90 minutes of soccer the Bucs fell to the Falcons in a five-goal thriller, 3-2.

The Basics

Final: Falcons 3, Buccaneers 2

Records: Mass Maritime 1-11 (0-4 MASCAC)

                Fitchburg State 5-8 (2-2 MASCAC)

For The Bucs

• Freshman Ariel Damery (Plympton, Mass) scored her team-leading third goal of the season on her only shot on target.
• Freshman Julia Podchaiski (Wallingford, Conn) added her second goal of the season in the second half.
• Freshman goalkeeper Paige Albertson (Nantucket, Mass) allowed three goals while making five saves on eight shots faced.

For The Falcons

• Freshman Elizabeth Read (Lowell, Mass) scored twice for the Falcons. Both goals coming in the first half.
• Freshman Lindsay LeBlond (Candia, N.H.) also scored for Fitchburg.
• Junior Shannon McCarthy (Chicopee, Mass) and Senior Natalie Arsenault (Ashburnham, Mass) were each credited with an assist in the game.
• Junior Goalkeeper Sarah Hemmings (Eastham, Mass) allowed both Buccaneer goals and made one save on three shots faced.

How It Happened

It was a tale of freshman goal scorers for both teams today as all five goals in the game were scored by first year players. The Falcons opened the scoring early with a goal off of the opening kickoff. Read found the back of the net on a shot that beat Albertson to her left, hit the post and went in to put the Falcons up 1-0 with under 30 seconds gone. Ten minutes later, Read would score again, this time on a shot that went in to the bottom right corner from the top of the 18-yard box to put her team up 2-0. Maritime would answer eight minutes later on Ari Damery's team-leading third goal of the season, unassisted, in the 19^th minute to cut the Falcon lead in half. That wasn't the end of the scoring in the first half as LeBlond scored to put her team up 3-1 in the 29^th minute. The score would remain 3-1 Fitchburg at the break.

The second half was all Buccaneers as they shut down the Fitchburg attack, allowing five shots in the second 45 compared to 11 in the first half. The Maritime offense was on point in the second half creating a multitude of chances, capitalizing on one when Podchaiski scored her second of the season on a tight angle shot from the edge of the six yard box in the 80^th minute to once again cut the deficit to one. The Bucs went on the offensive for the final ten minutes, even putting the ball across the face of goal on multiple occasions but ultimately the Falcons left rainy Buzzards Bay with a 3-2 conference victory.

Up Next

The Buccaneers will host Anna Maria College on Monday, October 14^th at 7pm at Clean Harbors Stadium.