NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's soccer team's strong start to the season continues.
Maya Bellomo made six saves, and
Ashley Kirschner scored her first career goal late in the first half as the Bulldogs edged Fordham 1-0 before a big crowd at Reese Stadium.
Yale (3-0-1) is unbeaten after two weekends of play and has yielded just one goal, which came in the final seconds of a 4-1 win over Quinnipiac.
This shutout may have been the most challenging. Fordham fired 16 shots at goal, but Bellomo was up to the task.
"It certainly wasn't pretty, and we made the game much harder than it needed to be," said
Sarah Martinez, The Loring Family Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "Credit to our players for finding ways to grind out results even when we are not playing our best."
Bellomo was at her best late in the game with Fordham in all-out attack mode. With 13 minutes remaining, she made a diving stop to deny a scoring chance, and with less than five minutes left, she knocked away a Caitlin Kennedy shot from point-blank range.
"Fordham made that game quite difficult, specifically in the final minutes," Martinez said. "They are well coached and organized, and we couldn't quite find a rhythm throughout the game."
The game was scoreless until late in the first half when
Chloe Laureano sent a long pass forward to Kirschner, who left-footed a shot past Fordham goalkeeper Maria O'Sullivan at 40:51.
The Bulldogs stymied the Rams in the early moments of the second half before Fordham picked up its attack.
With 10:52 remaining, the game was stopped when lightning was detected in the vicinity of Reese Stadium. The delay lasted nearly an hour before play resumed.
After playing their first four games in the friendly confines of Reese Stadium, the Bulldogs head out on the road next weekend. Yale plays at Kansas State on Friday night and then meets the University of Kansas next Sunday.
