Posted: Nov 07, 2009
BEVERLY, Mass. – Endicott’s \#Colleen Pepin\# (Fairhaven, Mass.) scored a pair of goals while TCCC Player of the Year \#Caitlin Flynn\# (Southold, N.Y.) added a goal and an assist as the Gulls downed Western New England College, 3-1, in The Commonwealth Coast Conference finals on Saturday afternoon in Beverly, Mass. The championship is the Gulls’ sixth in seven years and guarantees the Blue and Green a ticket to the NCAA Tournament for a seventh-straight season.
Endicott opened the scoring in the eighth minute as \#Caitlin Flynn\# collected the rebound off her own shot and fired a bid past WNEC goalkeeper Jessica Covino (Bristol, Conn.) to give the Gulls an early 1-0 lead. The goal was the 11th of the season for Flynn.
The Gulls extended their lead to 2-0 in the 42nd minute. Freshman \#Caitlin Peters\# (Salem, N.H.) took a free kick from 35-yards out and put a great ball on the back post. Sophomore \#Colleen Pepin\# redirected the feed with a leaping header that slipped past Covino, giving Endicott a two-goal cushion at the intermission.
Endicott put the game out of reach in the 54th minute as \#Caitlin Flynn\# put forth a solid individual effort, stealing the ball from the Western New England netminder. Deep in WNEC territory, Flynn shoveled a pass off the goal line to the middle of the box where Pepin buried a shot to the lower-right corner to make it 3-0 in favor of the hosts.
The Golden Bears got one back at the 73:59 mark as Heather Mortell (Webster, Mass.) notched her ninth of the season off a corner kick from Shannon Pescatello (Wethersfield, Conn.) Mortell took the cross and beat \#Amy Meuse\# (Saugus, Mass.) to the top-right for WNEC’s only goal of the afternoon. The tally ended Endicott’s nation-leading consecutive minutes scoreless streak, halting the shutout stretch at 1,063:59 minutes.
\#Amy Meuse\# made seven stops to run her record to a perfect 11-0. Her counterpart Jessica Covino made four saves in the losing effort. The Golden Bears outshot Endicott 11-10 and held a 5-3 advantage in corner kicks.
Endicott (17-4) will await word from the NCAA Selection Committee as to who its first round opponent will be. The Gulls, an At-Large recipient into last year’s tournament field, defeated Nazareth College before losing to William Smith in penalty kicks in the Rochester region of the 2008 NCAA Tournament. Check back to www.ecgulls.com for complete tournament coverage and announcements when they become available.
