Caruso Powers SJC to a 1-0 Victory In Overtime Thriller on Saturday Night

Written by Joshua Soto (SJC-LI Sports Information) 

New York, NY| Sophomore Sam Caruso netted her first-career goal from 25 yards out in overtime as the St. Joseph's College women's soccer team earned a crucial 1-0 Skyline Conference win over Sarah Lawrence at Randall's Island late Saturday night.

With the win, the Golden Eagles improve to 5-9-1 (4-2-1 Skyline) while Sarah Lawrence falls to 3-9 (1-6 Skyline).

Despite both teams having equal amount of possession time for the majority of the first half, the Golden Eagles took 15 and won seven corners to Sarah Lawrence's zero, but could not find the back of the net.

Freshman forward Mackenzie Nyitrayhad an opportunity to put the visitors in front in the 22nd minute, when the goalie came out of the box, but saw her open-net shot hit the post.

After the restart, freshman Jessica Passabile played a through ball on the right side and nearly slotted home a go-ahead goal when her 53rd minute attempt was saved by the Gryphon's goalkeeper Rachell Mosquera. Karissa Rutigliano's corner in the 70th minute created a wide open opportunity for Nyitray to finish easy, but the forward struck the crossbar once more.

St. Joseph's would create a flurry of opportunities over a three minute span later in the second half when Rebecca Voisich struck the ball just high of the goal in the 79th minute, Nyitray saw a ball go just wide of the goal in the 80th minute, and Passabile's shot was saved by the goalkeeper shortly after.

With no winner in sight the two sides headed to overtime, but in storybook fashion, SJC sophomore Caruso took a shot, in desperation, from 25 yards away and saw the ball trickle in midway through the first overtime period to lift the Golden Eagles to victory.

In a match that saw St. Joseph's heavily outshoot its opponent 28-0, SJC keeper Juliana Cintron-Leonardo saw zero shots, while Sarah Lawrence keeper Mosquera  made 10 saves.

SJC returns to action on Wednesday, October 19 when they travel to Union, NJ to face NJAC heavyweight Kean University at 7:30 PM. Live video and stats will be available here.