Beck Kiting’s game-winner propels Bobcats to first win

Beck Kiting’s game-winner propels Bobcats to first win

By: Ben Diaz, QBSN Beat Writer

The Quinnipiac women’s soccer team came into Sunday’s game against Holy Cross winless, with four consecutive losses.  Sophomore defenseman Beck Kiting (Canberra, Australia) put her little used offensive talent to good use, scoring the game winning goal in the 78^th minute.

The lone goal gave the Bobcats a scrappy 1-0 shutout victory earning their first win of the season. With the win the Bobcats improve to 1-4-1 overall, while the Crusaders drop to 2-5 on the season. “It was important to break the streak,” said head coach Dave Clarke. “We have been in this position the last couple of years where we haven’t started well results wise. It was probably our worst performance of the season and we won.”

After a foul, Quinnipiac goalkeeper Jill Kelley (Simsbury, Conn.) took a free kick near midfield. With several players from both teams battling for the ball, the ball bounced around in the box and found its way to Kiting, who buried it past Holy Cross freshman goalkeeper Carly McCabe.

“This time we decided to have Jill Kelley take the kick,” Kiting said. “It was a bouncing ball in the box. I tried to get on the end of it and see what happened.”

The Bobcats realized after several hard fought games they had to claw one out. “It feels great, trying to get our first win of the season,” Kiting said. “We were pretty disappointed with our performance on Friday against Lehigh and we are happy to get the win today.”

Each team had scoring opportunities but stellar goaltending by the Bobcats’ Kelley and Crusaders’ McCabe prevented either team from capitalizing until Kiting’s lone goal.  

The Bobcats had opportunities in the first half but could tally any goals. Junior forward Shauna Edwards’ header off of a cross from senior midfielder Furtuna Velaj was denied by McCabe, as she made a sprawling save to keep the game deadlocked.

Holy Cross had a scoring chance develop when midfielder Danielle Wasserman’s shot from the top of the box was saved by Kelley. Kelley made a game saving play deflecting the ball with her outstretched fingertips over the cross bar and out of play.

Jill Kelley made three stops in net for the Bobcats, while McCabe saved three shots for Holy Cross. Despite the loss, the Crusaders outshot the Bobcats 13-10.

The Bobcats return to the field when they travel to Sacred Heart for their first Northeast Conference game of the year on Friday, Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. at Campus Field in Fairfield, Conn. The Bobcats do not return to their home turf until October 7^th against Robert Morris.