Holyoke Strikes Late To Take 2-1 Victory From MCC

Women’s Soccer
Holyoke CC 2 Manchester CC 1
MANCHESTER – Holyoke CC (8-2) scored goals in the 84th and 88th minute to take a NJCAA region 21 Division III game away from Manchester CC (3-5-1) Thursday afternoon.

Ilyssa Riley (Enfield) gave MCC a 1-0 lead 15 minutes into the second half when she took a pass from Caitie Sutherland (Somers) and drilled it into the top right corner of the net.

The momentum slowly turned in Holyoke’s favor as the second half waned with the ball in Manchester defensive end much of the time.

“Give credit to them, they capitalized,” MCC head coach Jeremy Wilson said of Holyoke. “They waited us out and were able to get the goals to win when they had the opportunity.”

Amanda Grant and Alicia Carter scored the Holyoke goals while Amanda Canty made four saves. Michelle Kerr (Rockville) made six saves for Manchester.
MCC had several golden opportunities to score in the first half, but Canty made two solid saves and had a ball hit the post behind her.

“If I have any disappointment in the game it’s that we work on finishing daily,” Wilson said. “To create three or four good quality chances in the first half and three or four more in the second half and only score the one, it’s a little on the disappointing side, but we played an excellent game today. For 75 minutes we really played great and we have to stretch that out to 90 minutes and we will be fine.”

MCC has now lost six straight games to Holyoke dating back to the Region 21, Division III championship game on October 26, 2008. The Cougars host New Hampshire Tech in a non-league game on Saturday and Massasoit CC in a key Region 21, Division III game Monday. Both games start at noon.