RINDGE, N.H. (November 13, 2022) -- The left post at the south end of Sodexo Field was unnaturally kind to the No. 14 nationally ranked Franklin Pierce University women's soccer team on Sunday afternoon, in the second round of the NCAA Championship East Regional. With a penalty-kick shootout tied at 2-2, the fourth round of shots decided things by the slimmest of margins. First, Franklin Pierce freshman Claudia Peirce (Carver, Mass.) rang the left post, but saw the ball spin into the net anyway. Next, Bridgeport sophomore Angelina LoFranco hit the same post, but could not replicate the same luck, and the ball stayed out.

Franklin Pierce sophomore Makenzie Shean (Agawam, Mass.) followed with a shot right down the middle to finish things off, as the second-seeded Ravens advanced over the third-seeded Purple Knights, after a wild afternoon which saw the teams finish in a 2-2 (2 OT) draw. Franklin Pierce (15-3-3) advances to meet top-seeded and No. 6 Saint Rose in the regional final, which will be at Saint Rose on either Thursday or Friday. It is Franklin Pierce’s first trip to the third round of the national tournament since 2009.

Bridgeport (13-3-7) sees its season and its 12^th all-time NCAA Championship appearance come to a close.

The first 82 minutes of the game went scoreless, before the two sides traded goals in a span of just 4:03 the final eight minutes of regulation, which was, somehow, only the fourth- or fifth-most dramatic sequence of the afternoon, at best. Franklin Pierce had the opener on a rush into the penalty area in the 83^rd minute. Junior Hailey Goodman (Blackstone, Mass.) laid the ball off on the left side for sophomore Eleonora Franco (Verona, Italy). Franco found a seam back against the grain and played the ball across the box for fellow sophomore Salome Kerguillec (Landerneau, France), who had a sliding finish at the right post for her sixth of the season.

Disaster struck for Kerguillec and the Ravens just over four minutes later, in the 87^th minute. Bridgeport junior Vivien Ruettgers took a free kick some 25 yards from goal on the right side and served it into the penalty area. Kerguillec got her foot to the ball, in an attempt to play it away from danger, but instead booted it inside the right post of her own goal to even the score with 3:46 to play.

The drama only ratcheted up from there. Buoyed by the late equalizer, Bridgeport struck for the lead in the 96^th minute. On the run, freshman Solune Moll lofted a long ball ahead from the midfield. Sophomore Kate Thill ran it down behind the defense, beat onrushing sophomore goalkeeper Emilie Fox (Bridgewater, Mass.), who had no choice but to vacate her line, and slotted her 17^th of the campaign into the yawning net.

This time, it was Franklin Pierce's turn to equalize, which it did in the second overtime period, with just 3:21 remaining. A loose ball inside the penalty area came off the defense and popped free for junior Aino Martikainen (Järvenpää, Finland) near the penalty spot. Martikainen attempted a half-volley, but could not quite catch all of it, and the resulting shot appeared to fool Bridgeport sophomore goalkeeper Clara Karlsson. Karlsson was left rooted to her spot, while the ball rolled past her and into the right side of the net for Martikainen's sixth of the year.

It all conspired to leave the game's fate to penalty kicks at the south end of Sodexo Field, with ominous clouds blowing in from the west to portend the end of one team's season. With Franklin Pierce shooting first, both sides converted in the first round, before freshman Pinja Eklund (Klaukkala, Finland) misfired on a chip shot high and wide to the right to open the second round. Fox would get the Scandinavian off the hook in the third round, as she dove to her left to make the stop on a subpar effort by Moll.

The save left things at 2-2 heading for a fourth round which was decided by the harshest of margins. Peirce stepped to the spot for the Ravens and went to the lower left. Karlsson got her hands to the shot, but it still got behind her. The ball hit the inside of the left post, popped in the air, hung for dramatic effect and then tumbled over the line. Moments later, LoFranco went lower left as well, hit the same post but a fraction of an inch farther out, and the ball would not comply.

All that was left was for Shean to finish things off, and she did not mess around. The sophomore pumped a shot straight into the middle of the twine to send the Ravens spilling off the bench in celebration and through to the next round.