ONEONTA, N.Y. (November 3, 2019) – In what appeared to be a scoreless struggle through one half of play, the SUNY Delhi women's soccer team exploded for five second-half goals for a decisive 5-0 win over SUNY Canton in the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) Quarterfinals on Sunday. The four-seed Broncos hosted the five-seed Roos at SUNY Oneonta's Red Dragon Field, where the Broncos ripped four goals over the course of 12 minutes to start the latter half on their way to punching their ticket to Friday's NAC Semifinals match at top-seed Maine Maritime at 4:00 p.m.
Delhi was in search of both its first NAC playoff win and a season sweep of the Roos after a 3-0 win in the regular season on Sept. 28. Both sides sat through a mostly quiet first half, guided by steady defense and six first-half saves from Canton's Victoria Hanna and three from Delhi's Rachael Scoones.
All of that changed nearly seven minutes into the second half, as team-leading scorer Kelsey Innes battled in the box after a corner kick to gather a deflected shot from Reanan Goodspeed for the first score at 51:56. Goodspeed followed with her own goal just 44 seconds later, seizing an open opportunity off a cross from the right by Brianna Laing to connect to the right side of the net to take a two-goal lead. Innes came back for her second score four minutes later, getting a feed from Micayla Slattery, where her first shot deflected off Hanna and connected off the rebound for Delhi's third score. Defender Olivia Curry joined in on the scoring with her first goal of 2019, playing a short pass to Innes off her corner kick that Innes passed back to her, as Curry blasted an 18-yarder from the left side that sailed to the top right corner for a 4-0 lead at 63:42. Alexa DuBois closed out the scoring late in the game, as she dribbled down the left side to beat a defender, sending a ball that passed through the arms of new Roos keeper Jenny Ward at 85:06.
WSOC: Highlights from our five-goal second half explosion to defeat SUNY Canton 5-0 and advance to the @nacathletics semifinals! #DelhiDrive pic.twitter.com/J9XdWjCWxc
— SUNY Delhi Broncos (@DelhiBroncos) November 3, 2019
"We showed up to play today," said head coach Lauren Mackay. "We knew going in that it's always more challenging to play a team the second time. Canton adjusted their formation and it took us a while to break through. Once we scored the first goal, it gave us the confidence that we needed to continue to play our game and take chances. It was a great result for us and the team is looking forward to being part of the championship weekend in Maine."
The Broncos enter their semifinals match with the MMA Mariners (11-4) with a 9-6-2 record and revenge on their minds. Their regular-season meeting saw the Mariners win a 3-2 contest in double overtime on Sept. 21. The other semifinals match consists of two-seed Husson (6-5-1) and three-seed Maine Farmington (8-9-1), which will be played following the Broncos and Mariners' game at 7:00 p.m. The winners of each contest will square off for the NAC championship on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. All games will be hosted by Maine Maritime.
Innes' two-goal, one-assist day Sunday puts her at a team-best 37 points on 15 goals and seven assists, good for third in the NAC. She and DuBois are tied for the team lead with 15 goals, putting them at third in the conference. Scoones finished with three saves as she posted her second shutout of the season to improve to 5-5. The Broncos held a 21-9 lead in shots, including 13-4 in the second half, and had 14 corner kicks to Canton's two.
