Amherst, MA -- Ava Simunovic was the hero on both ends of the field as resolute defending led the Ephs to a 1-0 away win over rival Amherst.
Amherst came into this top of the NESCAC matchup confident, having won their last six games in a row and holding an undefeated record of 7-0-1. That confidence was evident from the start of the game, as both teams started strong.
The first scoring chance of the game came for Williams in the 8th minute.
Shae Rashoff received the ball around thirty yards out from the Amherst goal and sent a beautiful shot towards the top right corner of the goal. Amherst goalkeeper Katya Besch pulled out a wonderful save, tipping the shot out wide for a Williams corner kick.
Jaquelin Nordhoff's corner found
Tori Huang's head, who headed wide.
Amherst had their own pair of chances five minutes later, with one shot going wide and then Eph goalie
Margaret Huelin was called into action to calmly block the other.
For most of the first half, though, the Williams and Amherst defenses stole the show. For the Ephs, this game delivered very assured performances from
Reece Willison,
Paige Nelson,
Sam Brown, and
Ava Simunovic.
The best chance of the first half came half an hour in for Amherst. Striker Precious Novidzro got on to the ball past the Williams defense, leaving her 1v1 with Huelin, who came up trumps, delivering an excellent save to keep the game scoreless.
The Ephs seemed to be a bit on the back foot towards the end of the first half, but they came out to the second half stronger, getting the game's only goal in the 50ht minute. In what is becoming a pattern, a Nordhoff set piece was at the center of it all.
Nordhoff shot her free kick from over 30 yards out and forced a save from Besch. The save, however, landed in the path of
Meredith Tutun, who slid a cross into Simunovic, who finished with aplomb, sending the Ephs into a frenzy.
Amherst desperate to score, sent attack after attack to no avail. Both teams saw shots go wide or over. Although long stretches of the second half did not see either team threaten to score, it was an incredibly entertaining and hard-fought match.
As the clock passed ten minutes to go, the game got crazy as Amherst's desperation to score and Williams' desperation to hold their lead went head to head. In the 84th minute, Amherst had a great opportunity stopped with a last ditch tackle from Simunovic keeping the score locked at 1-0.
With four minutes left, the Ephs elected to manage the time as it dwindled. Taking the ball to the corner and sidelines, they worked for every second that ticked down. All of that hard work almost went down the drain when Amherst were in on goal with 20 seconds left. Eph netminder
Ana Bozzi-Mackay came up clutch with an important stop, sliding out to keep the ball out.
After the game, Eph head coach
Sarah Raymond said, "The game was everything we thought it would be with two undefeated teams going at it. Amherst has incredibly gifted forwards and we knew we would have to be rock solid defensively which we were for the most part and when a defender missed, both of our keepers came up big with keeping the clean sheet. Very proud of how tough we played for every minute all over the field. It was a big game and I felt we were up to the task."
The Ephs are now 7-0-1 overall and 4-0-1 in NESCAC. Tomorrow the Ephs will play at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. in a contest slated to start at 2:00 PM.
