ALBANY, N.Y. (November 18, 2022) -- "There's no time like the present," they say. We're not entirely sure who 'they' are, but on Friday afternoon, 'they' may as well have been Hailey Goodman (Blackstone, Mass.).

Without a goal to her name since Oct. 5, 2021, the junior put away the timeliest of headers, 2:22 into the first overtime of the East Region title game at Plumeri Sports Complex.

It was all the defense needed.

After refusing to yield so much as a shot on goal -- and just a single shot attempt -- over the final 17:38, the No. 14 nationally ranked and second seeded Franklin Pierce University women's soccer team reclaimed the East Region crown with a 2-1 (2 OT) win over the region's top seed, No. 6 Saint Rose. Effectively, Goodman's headed ended a 15-year regional title drought for the Ravens, who advance to the national quarterfinal for the first time since 2007, when the team finished as national runner-up.

Franklin Pierce (16-3-3) will play for a trip to the final four on Sunday, in a 2 p.m. kickoff at Plumeri Sports Complex. The opposition only gets tougher from here, as the Ravens square off with No. 2 West Chester (21-0-1), a team among the national title favorites, which claimed the Atlantic Region title earlier on Friday with a 1-0 victory over Kutztown.

The Franklin Pierce women join the school's No. 1 ranked men's team in the national quarterfinal round this weekend. It is also the first time both teams have advanced this far since 2007, when the men claimed the national title. Franklin Pierce is the first school since West Texas A&M in 2018 to see both its men's and women's soccer programs through to the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Championship.

Saint Rose (19-1-3), which had claimed the last two regional titles and was the national runner-up a year ago, sees its 17^th all-time NCAA Championship appearance come to an end with its only loss of the season.

The day began innocuously enough, as the beginning stages of the first half went by with little worth noting. The game sprung to life in the final 10 minutes of the stanza, as both sides struck in a matter of 89 seconds.

Franklin Pierce had the opener in the 38^th minute, after junior Aino Martikainen (Järvenpää, Finland) took a free kick from her own side of midfield. She found freshman Grace Martin (Millbury, Mass.), who touched the ball ahead to fellow freshman Claudia Peirce (Carver, Mass.), as the latter gained the penalty area on the left side. Peirce uncorked a shot which rang the crossbar, and then the ball came to the feet of the charging Delaney Farinha (Preston, Conn.) on the right side. The sophomore got just enough on her follow-up attempt to force her fifth of the season over the line before Saint Rose sophomore goalkeeper Pia Bozic could corral the ball.

Saint Rose needed just 1:29 to answer, on the rush in the 40^th minute. Senior Kelly Coster beat her defender on the left wing and served a cross into the middle of the penalty area. The service found freshman Madelyn Wania, who sent a one-touch pass back to the left, to the feet of graduate student Kaelyn Britt. Britt hammered a shot into the upper reaches of the net for her 12^th of the campaign.

After the entire second half went scoreless, the stage was set for Goodman's heroics on the counter in the third minute of extra time. Things started inside Franklin Pierce's own penalty area, with a dropkick from sophomore goalkeeper Emilie Fox (Bridgewater, Mass.), which targeted Peirce just on the far side of midfield. Peirce settled, and then played a pass which sprung sophomore Eleonora Franco (Verona, Italy) down the left wing. Deep in the corner, Franco lofted a cross all the way to the far side. At the right-wing edge of the six-yard box, Goodman elevated, put her forehead to the ball, and sent it over the head of Bozic to stake the Ravens to the 2-1 lead.

Saint Rose could muster only one shot attempt from there -- Coster fired wide left in the 96^th minute -- as Franklin Pierce saw out the victory.

Fox (12-2-3) finished with six saves against seven shots in front of the Franklin Pierce net. Bozic (19-1-3) stopped two of four shots at the Saint Rose end of the field.