Crossman, Dougherty and Cookson Led Bay Path to a 9-1 Victory over Wheelock

LONGMEADOW, Mass.- In the New England Collegiate Conference women's soccer battle of the Wildcats, Bay Path prevailed defeating the Wheelock Wildcats 9-1 today at Ryan Field. Three Maroon Wildcats each scored a pair of goals with freshman forward Nicole Crossman (Winsted, Conn.) and sophomore midfielder Keelin Dougherty (Northfield, N.H.) both adding two assists as well as two goal finishing with six point a piece for the afternoon. Freshman Alexis Cookson (Mt. Vernon, N.Y.) was the other Wildcat to tally two goals.

Bay Path's Crossman struck first at 6:08 on the clock after Dougherty sent the ball through the middle meeting up with Crossman who sailed the shot past Wheelock junior keeper Sarah McCaffrey (East Taunton, Mass.).

Less than a minute later Dougherty dribbled the ball up the center again this time drawing McCaffrey out from the sticks and scored the eventual game winner.

Crossman and Dougherty again teamed up on the third and fourth goal.  The third goal came at 18:16 on the clock after Dougherty took a shot. The shot was rebounded back to Dougherty who flicked it to Crossman for the shot. In the fourth goal, Crossman fed Dougherty who found the back of the net at 31:48.

Crossman had the assist on the fifth goal as well feeding the ball to sophomore teammate Emily Serrano (Savoy, Mass.) after a successful corner kick.

Head Coach Nick Chapman subbed Crossman and Dougherty giving the Wheelock Wildcats a break. Wheelock was short staffed today playing with no substitutes and only eight players. Coach Chapman pulled players to even the field after the half.

Even after both teams playing with less than eleven, Bay Path managed to score four more goals. Coach Chapman played the entire bench including giving freshman goalkeeper Jennifer Finn (Malden, Mass.) her first collegiate appearance in the second half.

Key Reservist freshman Cookson started the second half rally for Bay Path scoring at 54:55 on the clock after a cross inside the box from fellow freshman reservist Melissa Toler (Paso Robles, Calif.).  This would be Cookson first collegiate goal.

Toler would then slice a shot from the left side past Wheelock's goalie for the seventh goal at 66:23 on the clock.

Freshman forward Emma Petner (Hilo, Hawaii) broke up the shut-out scoring her sixth goal on the season at 75:08 after finding sailing a shot past Finn in the upper left corner of the goal.

Cookson would score again at 79:19 taking the ball down the left side on a 1V1 goal against McCaffrey.  Six minutes later senior defender Bridgette Flores (Somerville, Mass.) would repeat Cookson's drive and score a solo shot drawing the keeper out of the net.

Bay Path's starting freshman goalkeeper Marina Rhodes (Providence, R.I.) earned the win with three saves and no goals against in the first 56:14 minutes. Finn would finish the job with two saves. MCCaffrey would suffer the loss with 16 saves.

Bay Path is now 3-10 overall and 2-4 in the NECC, while Wheelock is 1-10 on the season and 1-5 in league play. The maroon Wildcats will host Elms College in another NECC match on October 22^nd at 1:00 p.m., while the blue and gold Wildcats host conference rival Mitchell at noon.