LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. – Ashley McMahon scored off a free kick with nine minutes to play, breaking a 1-1 tie and giving the Fairfield University Women's Soccer team a 2-1 victory over the Siena Saints on Saturday. The win improves Fairfield's Metro Conference record to an unbeaten 3-0 this season and boosts their conference regular season unbeaten streak to 18 matches.
Ashlyn Walsh also touched net for the Stags as Fairfield rallied with two goals in the final 25 minutes of the match.
The two goals scored also snapped Siena's scoreless streak that lasted 699 minutes as the Saints entered the match with a NCAA leading seven shutouts.
"Siena is an excellent defensive team and they put a lot of numbers behind the ball," Head Coach
David Barrett said. "We knew we would only get a few moments. We talked about changing our attitude at halftime because we just didn't have the right mentality when we got chances. We had to score a real gritty goal with Ashlyn's goal and then Ashley got a beautiful free kick but we had to earn a foul. Those are a few moments we had to take advantage of."
"I knew once we got the free kick I was going to take it because I've been working hard all week," McMahon said. "That was the perfect spot to hit it and before I was just like 'you got this' and 'this is going to go in' just talking myself into being confident. Then once I hit it I knew it was going to go in."
Siena was the first team on the board with an Anna Swyers goal off a cross in the 54th minute before Fairfield generated their rally.
McMahon helped create Fairfield's tying score by sending a cross into the box that Walsh was able to finish in the 68th minute. The goal marked the third-straight match with a point from Walsh. Pisani was also credited with an assist on the play bringing her season total to 11 points.
The game-winning goal was set up when
Phoebe George drew a foul just outside the box that McMahon stepped up to and lofted her shot over the keeper to give the Stags a 2-1 advantage.
The Stags out-shot Siena 14-10 on the match and
Alyssa Gluting registered four saves.
Fairfield is now the only unbeaten team in Metro play with a 3-0 record. They are unbeaten in 18-straight regular season conference matches and have garnered a point in 31 of their last 32 league contests.
The Stags will look to continue those streaks when they host Iona on Wednesday at 7pm.
