Center Valley, PA (September 16, 2007) – The DeSales University women's soccer team fell just short in its upset bid of 24th ranked William Smith College (NY) as the Herons scored on a penalty kick with 2:10 left in the game to break a tie at one and give WSC the win in a non-conference game on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.
William Smith (6-0 overall) held a 1-0 lead when Rayza Santiago scored her first of two goals at the 21:14 mark of the first half when a centering pass was not cleared out of the box and Santiago found the loose ball and drove it past the DSU keeper.
The Herons seemed destined for a shutout win late in the second half before the Bulldogs (1-4-1 overall) struck as junior Dana Eustace (Highland Lakes, NJ/Vernon Township) found freshman Jill Yetter (Saylorsburg, PA/Pleasant Valley) streaking down the right side of the field. Yetter beat the Herons goalkeeper in a foot race to the ball on the right side of the box and pushed the ball past the keeper and into the net tying the game at one with 7:34 left on the clock.
William Smith peppered the offensive zone over the next few minutes as sophomore Katie Halpin (Easton, PA/Notre Dame) made several miraculous saves to keep the game tied but with just under three minutes left the Herons had two point blank chances blocked before the third was touched by a DSU hand in the box setting up a penalty kick and Santiago beat the DSU keeper to the left side to put WSC up 2-1 with 2:10 to play.
William Smith out-shot DeSales 24-7 in the game and held a 7-3 advantage in corner kicks. Halpin was terrific in between the pipes making 15 saves for the Bulldogs, while her counterpart Alex Chase had three saves in the win.
DSU returns to action on Wednesday, September 19th when they travel to Widener University for a non-conference game beginning at 7:00 pm.
