BALTIMORE—Sophomore midfielder Sandra Vacarino (Mantua, N.J./Clearview Regional) tallied twice and added an assist, but it was not enough as the UMBC women's soccer team (1-9-1, 0-2-0 AE) fell to America East rival Vermont (1-7-3, 1-0-2 AE) by a score of 6-5 Sunday afternoon at a sun-soaked UMBC Soccer Stadium.
The five goals are the most the Retrievers have scored since Sept. 30, 2005, a 5-0 victory over Howard, and it is the most they have ever scored against an America East opponent.
Vacarino put the Retrievers on the board less than six minutes into the game. Freshman back Aly Gazarek (Manassas, Va./Freedom/South Florida) sent a corner kick into the box that Vermont goalie Eliza Bradley misplayed. Vacarino collected the ball off a bounce and shot it into the top-right corner for her first goal of the season.
A barrage of goals over a three-minute span ended with Vermont taking a 3-2 lead with just 27 minutes elapsed in the game.
In the 23rd minute, Vacarino gave UMBC a 2-0 lead when her shot from 35 yards out went right past Bradley, who had come out of goal and was playing at the top of the box, and found the empty net.
But Vermont countered just a minute later, as midfielder Carson Laderoute sent a cross to forward Gabby Bonfigli from the right side, and Bonfigli slid the ball past UMBC sophomore keeper Mo Van Vlerah (Ijamsville, Md./Northwest) into the lower corner to cut her team's deficit in half.
Less than three minutes later, Laderoute knotted the score as she split two defenders and shot the ball on the ground to the far left. Midfielder Jess Herbst gave the Catamounts their first lead of the game, 3-2, late in the 27th minute, when she collected a cross from forward Jessica Becker and shot it into the lower-right corner of the goal.
The Retrievers again tied the score in the 36th minute, when junior midfielder Elyse Bilardo (Aston, Pa./Sun Valley) sent a corner kick into the box. The ball hit off a defender and fell to the feet of junior back Christine Sadowski (Baltimore, Md./Kenwood), who kicked it backwards into the net for her first goal of the season.
The teams went into halftime tied at 3-3, but 5:15 into the second stanza, sophomore midfielder Danielle Kell (Willards, Md./Parkside) collected direct passes from sophomore forward LeAnne Edgar (Mechanicsville, Md./Chopticon) and junior midfielder Megan McDonald (Wyoming, Pa./Dallas), stopped, turned and fired a shot that glanced off the hands of a diving Bradley and into the right corner for her second goal in the last two games, giving UMBC a 4-3 lead.
But the Catamounts again had an answer, as they scored three straight goals over the next 17 minutes.
Just two minutes after Kell put the Retrievers on top, Vermont knotted the score when Laderoute's crossing pass from the right side caught Van Vlerah off guard and snuck past her into the net.
Then in the 67th minute, Becker found Laderoute, who beat her defender, turned and fired a shot into the top left to give the Catamounts the lead for good, 5-4. Less than a minute later, Herbst collected a pass from Becker outside the box, and her shot went just inside the left pipe for the eventual game-winner.
With just six seconds remaining in the game, Vacarino sent the ball over two defenders to freshman midfielder Sarah Purdum (West Fenwick Island, Del./Indian River), who beat substitute goalie Alyssa Kelly one-on-one, and her shot hit off the crossbar and bounced into the net for her first career goal and the 6-5 final. Kell was also credited with an assist on the play.
Van Vlerah finished with seven saves in the game, while Bradley stopped two shots in 82:39 between the pipes. Kelly did not record a save in the final 7:21 of play.
The Catamounts outshot the Retrievers, 21-10, including 12-2 in the second half, and held a 5-2 advantage on corner kicks.
The Retrievers return to action on Thursday, Oct. 8, when they travel to America East rival Stony Brook.
