Women’s Soccer Celebrates Senior Day With 1-0 Win Over Old Westbury

NEW YORK — Celebrating the final home game for their seniors Christina Caruso (Astoria, N.Y./St. John's Prep) and Merima Kokale (Staten Island, N.Y. / New Utrecht), the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's soccer team (6-6, 3-2 Skyline) captured a 1-0 Skyline Conference victory over SUNY College at Old Westbury (3-10, 1-4 Skyline) on Saturday afternoon at Randall's Island. 

How It Happened

The Bears controlled play for much of the opening 45—outshooting the visitors 13-3 in the period—but couldn't get the ball in the cage. Freshman Julia Lavelle (Bayside, N.Y./Mary Louis) had a good look at the goal midway through the period, but a diving stop by Alexa Higgins preserved the scoreless deadlock. Late in the half, the Bears finally broke through for the game's lone goal when a Deserae Sequeira (Clark, N.J./Arthur L. Johnson) took a loose ball in traffic in the box and slotted it in the lower right corner of the goal.

SJC would maintain the pressure in a scoreless second stanza and held a 9-5 shot advantage, with Reem Shaban (Brooklyn, N.Y./New Utrecht) stopping all four Panther shots on goal in the half to preserve her second collegiate shutout.

For the Bears

• Sequeira led the offense with nine shots (five on goal), tallying her Skyline-leading 11th goal of the season.
• Shaban finished with six saves to preserve her second shutout.
• Rachel Rocha (Linden, N.J./Linden), Christina DiBartolo (Middle Village, N.Y./Forest Hills) and Anisah Molic (Staten Island, N.Y./Susan E. Wagner) fired three shots each.

Next Up for the Bears

The Bears head to first-place, league-unbeaten Mount Saint Mary College (8-4-1, 4-0 Skyline) on Wednesday (Oct. 10). Kickoff in Newburgh, N.Y is set for 5 p.m. with live stats available on SJCBears.com.