Top Seeded Golden Bears Take Down Wentworth 3-0 to Advance to CCC Semifinals

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (October 29, 2022) – The No. 1 seed in the CCC tournamemt, the Western New England women's soccer team, used three goals in the second half to come away with a 3-0 victory over the Leopards of Wentworth Institute of Technology on Saturday afternoon, punching their ticket to the CCC Semifinals on Tuesday afternoon. 

Records:

• No. 1 Western New England: 12-5-1
• No. 8 Wentworth: 8-8-2

How it Happened:
After defeating Wentworth just four days prior in the final regular season game of the season, the Golden Bears looked to pick up right where they left off in that 3-1 win. Isabella Montalvo would come away with the game's first shot on goal. Though Juliana Heaton would come away with a big save to keep the streaking Golden Bears off the board. Wentworth would return the favor just eight minutes later when Diana Bruggeman, leading point-getter for the Leopards tested WNE GK Molly McLaughlin, though McLaughlin denied the chance. 

Play would begin to favor heavily inside the Western New England offensive end as Gabby Sansone and Danielle McCarthy would both come away with chances, though could not find the back of the net. Western New England would outshoot the Leopards 9-4 in the first half with Heaton coming away with three saves and McLaughlin with two for WNE. 

Western New England would maintain possession for much of the first ten minutes of the second half as Allison Bruehwiler, Summer Hathaway, Danielle McCarthy, and Isabella Montalvo would all come away with shots in a six-minute span to begin the half. At last, Western New England would break the zeros on the scoreboard when Danielle McCarthy found a streaking Summer Hathaway, who was able to shoot and score her second goal of the season to give Western New England a 1-0 lead. WNE would keep the pressure on, seeing two more shots towards goal in the 60^th minute. Western New England needed just under five minutes of play to record their second goal of the game. 

After a scramble inside the box, Western New England's Isabella Montalvo would find an open Samantha Vitka, who used her right foot to notch her fourth goal of the season, giving Western New England a 2-0 lead. WNE would win the defensive battle, holding Wentworth to minimal dangerous chances in the contest. 

In the late stages of the game, Danielle McCarthy would pick up her second assist of the game when she found Allison Bruehwiler, WNE's leading goal scorer and point-getter in the regular season. Bruehwiler would tuck the ball into the corner of the net, putting the Golden Bears ahead by a score of 3-0. That would be all the scoring Western New England would need, as WNE outshot Wentworth 15-2 in the second half and came away with a 3-0 victory from Suprenant Field. 

Around the Lines: 

• Three different goal scorers would pace the way to victory for WNE as Sumemr Hathaway, Samantha Vitka, and Allison Bruehwiler would all collect tallies in the win. 
• Danielle McCarthy would pick up two assists to help lead Western New England to the semifinal round of the CCC Tournament. 
• WNE outshot Wentworth 24-6 in the 90 minutes of play. WNE took seven corner kicks to in the second half while Wentworth took none.
• Molly McLaughlin made all three saves in the win. Juliana Heaton and Adrianna Arona combined for six saves in the loss. 
• Western New England advances to the CCC semifinals for the first time since 2018.

Up Next on the Schedule:

• WNE will host Roger Williams University on Tuesday, November 1 in the CCC semifinal round. 
• Wentworth wraps up their 2022 campaign at 8-8-2.