BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The visiting Roger Williams University women's soccer team posted a 2-0 shutout victory over Bridgewater State University on Wednesday night at Mazzaferro Field.
The Hawks improve to 4-5-2 on the season with the win and even the all-time series at 10-10-1. The Bears fall to 3-4 with the setback.
Roger Williams scored the only two goals of the contest within the first two minutes of the opening stanza.
Less than a minute and a half into the contest, graduate forward Bianca Robbins (Johnston, R.I.) split two defenders with a pass on the right side. Junior midfielder Rachel Oster (Scituate, R.I.) beat a defender to the ball and tucked a shot inside the far post for her second goal of the season.
Just 39 seconds later, freshman midfielder Mya D'Antonio (Marshfield, Mass.) slipped a long pass from the defensive zone through multiple defenders. Junior forward Sabrina Sherman (Brentwood, N.H.) outran a defender to the ball, dribbled in and tapped a left-footed shot past the netminder. For Sherman, the goal marked her second of the 2023 campaign.
Senior defender Sydney Dewhurst (East Bridgewater, Mass.) nearly got the Bears on the board in the tenth minute as she rang the crossbar from 40 yards out off a restart.
BSU junior goaltender Tori Gemellaro (Wilmington, Mass.) stopped an Oster breakaway bid in the 17th minute with an outstanding diving stop to keep the deficit at two.
The score would hold at 2-0 in favor of the Hawks heading into the intermission.
Bridgewater had a glorious chance to cut into the deficit in the 56th minute as a short crossing pass from sophomore forward Olivia Robarge (Pepperell, Mass.) found a wide-open Rebecca Russo (Fr., Shrewsbury, Mass.) at the top of the six. Russo, however, was unable to get a lot on the shot and RWU keeper Coco Marrelli (Fairfield, Conn.) made the easy save.
With time ticking away, the Bears had one last opportunity off a long volley sent into the box by senior defender Makenna Lessard (East Bridgewater, Mass.). Dewhurst outmuscled the keeper to gain possession of the ball, but her close-range, off-balance shot slipped wide of the far post.
Bridgewater finished with a 15-10 shot advantage for the game as well as an 8-2 edge in corner kick attempts.
Marrelli made six saves to record her fourth win of the season and second shutout. Gemellaro turned aside five shots in her first collegiate start.
Both teams are back in action with conference games on Saturday. The Bears travel to Framingham State University to take on the Rams at 11:00 AM in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) matchup. The Hawks head to Endicott College for a three o'clock Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) affair with the Gulls.