The Oswego State women's soccer team survived the ebbs and flows of a road contest at DeSales University with a 3-2 victory on Saturday afternoon. With the season-opening win, Oswego goes to 1-0 while DeSales suffers its first loss to drop to 1-1.
Junior Sarah Grupp played the role of hero on the day, breaking a 2-2 tie in the tilt. Classmate Emma Geyer found Grupp late in the game, and the midfielder rocketed a shot that the Bulldog keeper could not handle. The attempt caromed off the goalie's hands and ricocheted off the crossbar and into the goal at 85:32. That goal proved to be the game-winner as Oswego held DeSales off the scoreboard for the final 4:28.
Prior to Grupp's tally, it was a game of two-goal runs for each squad. The Lakers opened up the game with a goal just 1:40 into the action off the foot of Mary Morrison. Less than five minutes later, Oswego scored again to take a commanding 2-0 lead. At 6:06, Alexa Restante forced a Bulldog's turnover and slipped a pass on to Audrey Burbidge who notched her first of the year. Restante filled the position of helper in the opening half, as the junior also assisted on the Morrison goal.
Oswego took the two-goal advantage into the locker room at halftime, but DeSales was poised to even the game in the second half. DeSales scored goals just over six minutes apart, starting at 56:27, nearly mimicking the Lakers scoring of the first stanza at a minute-slower pace.
Laker goaltender Melissa Siegfried made two saves in her first win of the year.
Statistically, both teams were close, with Oswego edging DeSales in shots (9-8) and corner kicks (4-3).
Oswego's next contest will come as part of the Fredonia Tournament, as the Lakers face the University of Mount Union at 1 p.m. on Friday.
