April 29, 2006
BEVERLY, MA - Senior Cathy Sharp (Rutland, VT/Rutland) has been the catalyst all season long for Endicott and the CCC Player of the Year stepped up again in the Commonwealth Coast Conference Championship, netting seven goals to propel the second-seeded Gulls past No. 5 Curry College, 16-12, Saturday afternoon at Endicott Stadium.
Endicott (17-2) won its first-ever CCC crown and will appear in its first NCAA Tournament while the Colonels finished the season with a 13-6 record.
Sharp scored 16 goals in three postseason contests for the Gulls, including seven in each of the last two games, and got the ball rolling in the title game, scoring 1:32 into the game.
The teams traded goals early in the first half but Endicott scored four straight on tallies by Sharp, Susie Neikirk (Scotia, NY/Scotia-Glenville), Sara Gunter (Kennebunk, ME/Kennebunk) and Alex Pearce (Underhill, CT/Underhill) to take a 7-3 lead with just under 15:00 minutes remaining in the opening stanza.
Curry stayed poised and cut the lead to 12-9 at intermission thanks to Jessica Nassar (North Andover, MA), who deposited four goals in the contest. Mikki Mackay (Framingham, MA), Emily Knight (Boulder, CO) and Meghan Tilley (Milton, MA) put home two goals apiece for the Colonels, but nothing could slow down the high-paced EC attack.
Gunter and Shiori Tachiwana (Kanagawa, Japan/Sakae Institute) each notched hat tricks for the Gulls and Gunter handed out the team's only two assists. Pearce added a pair of goals and Neikirk scored once in the win.
Endicott junior netminder Erin Curry (Hampstead, NH/Gould Academy) teamed up with Molly Hamel (North Yarmouth, ME/Greely) to slow down Nassar and the Curry offense. Curry played the first 44 minutes, making nine stops before Hamel stymied the Colonels, allowing just one goal over the final 16 minutes of regulation.
Nassar scored just over a minute into the second half to help Curry narrow the deficit to two goals at 12-10. But Tachiwana and Sharp netted back-to-back goals to foil the comeback.
Endicott defender Molly Moss (Yarmouth, ME/North Yarmouth Academy) had four ground balls and two caused turnovers while Curry's Lindsay Lunati (Patchogue, NY) scooped two ground balls and forced two turnovers.
