Three second half goals propel Bulls to road blanking of Youngstown State

UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO ATHLETICS

YOUNGSTOWN, O.H. — Behind three second half goals, the shorthanded University at Buffalo women’s soccer team (1-1-0, 0-0-0 MAC) earned a 3-0 road victory over the Youngstown State Penguins on the road on Friday night. The win marked the first of the season for UB as three different players notched goals for the Bulls and Carissima Cutrona notched two helpers. 

• Score: Buffalo 3, Youngstown State 0
• Records: Buffalo (1-1-0, 0-0-0 MAC), Youngstown State (0-2-0, 0-0-0 Horizon)
• Buffalo Goal Scorer: Gurjeena Jandu (1), Gianna Yurchak (1), Kaitlyn Walsh (2)
• Buffalo Assist: Carissima Cutrona 2 (2), Tess Ford (1), Marcy Barberic (1)
• Location: Farmers National Bank Field – Youngstown, OH

• Buffalo: Emily Kelly, Rebecca Bramble, Gurjeena Jandu, Tess Ford, Abbey Callaghan, Hannah Callaghan, Kaitlyn Walsh, Mairead Martin, Gianna Yurchak, Marcy Barberic, Carissima Cutrona
• Youngstown State: Zeeyana Jivraj, Luca Fahmer, Madison Hughes, Lexi Neal, Samantha Mazula, Jordan Evans, Shani Jefferson, Rasheda Abdul-Rahman, Laurel Prokopchak, Lauren Dolak, Katie Hackos

• The Bulls were able to notch the first two shots of the match as Marcy Barberic and Gianna Yurchak each ripped shots that were just off target.
• Emily Kelly was able to come up with back-to-back saves for the Bulls in the 10^th minute and the 12 minute as she stopped attempts by Jordan Evans and Laurel Prokopchak to keep the game scoreless.
• The Penguins had two more chances just over 13 minutes later but Emily Kelly came up with two more saves as she denied Prokopchak and Samantha Mazula from netting the opening goal.
• In the 38^th minute, Carissima Cutrona had her first shot of the match but the Penguins keeper came out and made a save to send things to the locker room, 0-0.
• Buffalo came out of the locker room strong as Abbey Callaghan and Gianna Yurchak each had shots blocked before Yurchak sent a header over the goal after a nice corner from Gurjeena Jandu.
• The Bulls continued to push the tempo in the second half as Abbey Callaghan had a chance to open the scoring but Zeeyana Jivraj made a nice save.
• UB finally broke through with the first goal of the match in the 67^th minute as Gurjeena Jandu netted her first of the season as she placed a direct kick into the lower left corner, beating the diving keeper.
• The Buffalo offense was able to extend their lead out to 2-0 in the 79^th minute of play as Carissima Cutrona and Tess Ford assisted on Gianna Yurchak‘s first of the season as she calmly placed the ball into the open net.
• After a pair of Emily Kelly saves prevented the Penguins from getting within one, the Bulls put the game away in the 88^th minute as Marcy Barberic placed a corner into the box where Carissima Cutrona fed Kaitlyn Walsh who netted her second goal of the season.

• The road win for the Bulls marked their first win of the 2018 season.
• The Buffalo offense netted three second half goals for the first time in a game since September 9, 2016 when they netted three against Canisius.
• Gurjeena Jandu and Gianna Yurchak each picked up their first goals of the season.
• The game-winning goal for Gurjeena Jandu was the first of her UB career.
• Senior Carissima Cutrona notched a pair of assists in the win, tying a career-high for helpers in a game.
• Sophomore Kaitlyn Walsh has scored goals in back-to-back matches for the first time in her UB career.
• Freshman defender Tess Ford notched her first career point, an assist, on Gianna Yurchak‘s goal.
• Marcy Barberic picked up her first assist of the season on Kaitlyn Walsh‘s goal.
• Freshman goalkeeper Emily Kelly recorded a career-high eight saves in the first cleansheet of her career.
• Buffalo held the 14-11 advantage in shots for the match including a dominant 10-4 edge in the second half.
• UB also held the 4-1 edge in corner kicks while the Bulls committed 12 fouls to the Penguins six.

• Head coach Shawn Burke: “Youngstown State made things very difficult for us all night. They did a great job disrupting what we try and do and we need to be better figuring games out. The girls showed resolve and fight and found a way to get a result tonight.”

• St. John’s – Kaitlyn Walsh
• Youngstown State – Gurjeena Jandu