Senior Emma Casey tallied a brace for the Saints as the St. Lawrence University women's soccer team defeated Utica University 2-0 on Wednesday afternoon at Sandy MacAllaster Field.

With the win, the Saints improved to 7-6-1 on the year, while the Pioneers fell to 4-10-2.

"That was a good win for our group," said head coach Sinead McSharry "It was nice having some players back and seeing the group build confidence towards Saturday."

Casey wasted little time getting her first goal on the board scoring in just the third minute. The Saints held heavy pressure in the Pioneers' end and forced a set of corner kicks. On the second attempt, Grace Mochnal played the corner short to Casey, who carried the ball in towards the net from the end line. Casey buried a shot past the keeper to take the 1-0 lead.

Madison King-Thurber and Meredith Donahue combined for the remaining three shots of the half, but Emily Duro stopped all three efforts to keep the score at 1-0.

The Scarlet and Brown dominated the first half to the tune of a 10-1 edge in shot attempts and an 8-0 advantage in corner kicks.



St. Lawrence continued their dominance through the second half getting five shots in the first eight minutes and finally broke through once again in the 60^th minute.

A Utica defender was playing a dangerous ball in their box in an attempt to clear but the ball instead found the foot of Casey. The senior rifled a shot underneath the crossbar and through the gloves of Hanna Pcola for the brace and the 2-0 Saint lead.

St. Lawrence's best defense the rest of the way was their offense taking 12 more shots the rest of the way and holding Utica to just two shots on goal, which were both stopped by Darcie McDonough.

McDonough earned her third solo shutout of the year with her two saves. Duro stopped four shots in the first half of play for Utica, while Pcola came up with three in the second half.

The Scarlet and Brown finished with a 28-5 shot advantage and a 9-2 edge in shots on goal, while the corner kick tally finished at 10-1 in favor of the Saints.

St. Lawrence will be back at home for their final home match of the regular season when the team hosts Skidmore in a 3 p.m. start. The St. Lawrence University women's soccer program will honor the eight members of the Class of 2025 before the match as part of senior day.