Box Score PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (Oct. 7, 2015) - Freshman midfielder
Amanda Milazzo (Setauket, N.Y.) picked a perfect time to score the first goal of her collegiate career as her 81st-minute tally provided the Molloy College women's soccer team with enough offense to claim a 1-0 victory over Philadelphia Wednesday at Ravenhill Field.
From the opening whistle, Molloy (4-3-2) attacked the net of the home side with Philadelphia (4-7) on its heels for the first six minutes of play. The Lions took the first three shots as freshman back
Allie Rainey (Smithtown, N.Y.) fired an attempt high two minutes into play, then shots by sophomore forward
Sam Bernieri (Massapequa, N.Y.) and junior attacker
Danielle Valente (South Setauket, N.Y.) were turned aside by Rams keeper Courtney Shaw (Langhorne, Pa.). After the initial flurry of attempts, Molloy would settle for just one other shot in the 26th minute as senior midfielder
Christina Restivo (New Hyde Park, N.Y.) had her attempt on goal saved by Shaw as well. Philadelphia took eight shots from the sixth minute on with only two on target in the first half and both attempts were saved by junior goalkeeper
Gabrielle Batista (Hicksville, N.Y.).
The second half saw a continued push by the home side to get the game's first goal as junior midfielder Taylor Mysza (Doylestown, Pa.) had her shot at the 52:27 mark saved by Batista. A pivotal point would come 25 minutes later as Molloy senior midfielder
Shannon Murphy (North Babylon, N.Y.) launched a shot on net that was stopped by Shaw. Philadelphia attempted a counterattack and senior middie Nicole Raab (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) was the one to direct a shot towards goal against the Molloy defense. Once again, however, Batista stood up to the task and made the save. With less than nine-and-a-half minutes to go in the contest, Milazzo would earn herself the role of heroine as she took an ambitious shot from 35 yards out that snuck underneath the crossbar and into the back of the net. That would prove to be the final shot of the contest, a testament to the effort of Molloy's defensive back line to keep the Rams from sniffing an attempt at an equalizer.
Both Batista and Shaw made four saves in their respective goals, and Batista earned her second consecutive clean sheet and shutout of the season. The junior is now on a streak of 246-plus minutes without yielding a goal in net, while Molloy---who had gone over three hundred minutes without scoring earlier in the season---has not let up a goal in nearly 324 minutes of action.
Molloy will next head to Western New York to begin a two-game, two-city, three-day tour of the ECC's furthest opponents in women's soccer. The Lions play in Rochester against Roberts Wesleyan on Friday (Oct. 9) before facing Daemen on Sunday (Oct. 11) in Amherst, N.Y.
