Box Score

ALFRED, NY—The AU Saxons fell short in a 1-0 defeat against Empire 8 rival St. John Fisher College in Saturday afternoon's women's soccer matchup despite a late push.
 
Throughout the first half the Cardinals' offense was able to hold the ball in the Saxon defense third, putting six shots on goal.  However, the Saxons' defense had a very strong outing, maintaining a 0-0 draw going into half time.    
 
The second half proved to be more of the same with the Saxon defense denying the waves of attacks from the Cardinals refusing to give up an inch.  Finally, in the 57^th minute, the Cardinals were able to sneak past the Saxons defense when Sammy Jo Shanahan (Valley Stream, NY/Valley Stream South) came off the line strong and hard to punch the ball to safety.  However, the ball came back down within the box directly to Carly Finn, who snuck behind the defense to volley the ball into the open net.
 
The next twenty minutes were once again a bout between two forces, and the Saxons were able to keep the Cardinals out of the net for the rest of the game.  Then, in the 87^th minute, Patricia Banahene (Brighton, NY/Brighton) surged into the box and was able to spring free to get a shot off, but was just wide of the goal.  Throughout the closing minutes AU played with a sense of urgency looking to find the equalizing goal, but simply fell short as the final horn sounded the game ended, 1-0.
 
Shanahan finished the game with 12 saves, giving her 126 saves on the season; the highest in the Empire 8.
 
The Saxons (3-8-2 Empire 8 0-4) are in action again Sunday October 12^th at 1pm against Stevens Institute of Technology.