Mariah Shade (Los Bajos, Trinidad & Tobago) scored three goals and assisted on another to lead the 16th-ranked American International College women's soccer team to a 6-0 Northeast-10 victory over visiting UMass Lowell Saturday afternoon at Ronald J. Abdow Field.
The Yellow Jackets improved to 9-2-2 overall and 8-1-2 in the Northeast-10 with the win, and recorded their six shutout in their last seven games. The River Hawks fell to 4-7-2 for the season and 3-7-1 in conference play.
Shade's first goal came just 7:02 into the contest as she was sent in on a breakaway off a through ball from senior Sarah Tomlinson (Clitheroe, England) and she scored her second of the match at 15:54 as she dribbled in from the left sideline and placed the ball inside the right post. Freshman Roxy Lee-Stewart (Southampton, England) fed the ball up the sideline to Shade, who then ran past the UMass Lowell defender.
The score remained 2-0 until 3:52 into the second half when junior Allie Fitzsimmons (West Springfield, Mass.) brought the ball left of the goal towards the end line and chipped the ball past an outstretched sophomore Jane Hatzikonstantis (Tewksbury, Mass.) to make it 3-0 AIC. Freshman Miemi Tomochika (Toshima-Ku, Japan) then one-timed a cross from Shade from the right side of the box 2:01 later to extend the lead to 4-0.
Shade (player of the week) scored her third of the match 5:39 later as she took a feed from senior Bonnie Boornazian (Farmington, Conn.) and dribbled through two defenders before firing a shot that Hatzikonstantis couldn't handle and into the net. Freshman Alyssa Werbicki (Chicopee, Mass.) capped the scoring when her shot from 20 yards out carried over the keeper with 6:36 left in the game.
AIC outshot the River Hawks 25-4 in the match, with only two shots needing to be handled by sophomore keeper Samantha Tabak (North Haven, Conn.), who improved to 8-1-1 in goal for the Yellow Jackets while recording her sixth shutout of the year. Hatzikonstantis had eight saves while dropping to 2-3-1 for the season.
AIC will next host a Northeast-10 match against Assumption College Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Ronald J. Abdow Field.