Sept. 24, 2010

Box Score

Steve Karbowski entered this season needing seven wins for 100 in his career. Little did he know it would take him just seven games. Ashleigh Barone and Shannon Clancy provided the offense and Siena defeated Holy Cross 2-1 Friday night as Karbowski recorded his personal milestone and the Saints kept their perfect record intact.

"It was great," said a soaked Karbowski postgame as he tried to dry off following his celebratory Gatorade bath. "A lot of great players over the years have helped to get me here and it's a good feeling to get to this point. I would also like to thank Charlie Curto for getting me to Siena to play and coach with him for six years. He gave me my chance to be a coach and I wouldn't be here without him.

The victory improved the Saints to a perfect 7-0-0 and kept them as one of only three remaining undefeated and untied teams in the country along with Maryland and Portland. Impressively, six of Siena's seven wins have come on the road.

"This was a good performance," added Karbowski. "We played well, had a lot of possession and chances and scored two big goals, the second of which proved to be very important."

Barone opened the scoring in the 31st minute. The Saints crossed the ball in to the corner of the box and although the Holy Cross (2-4-1) defender had the first touch, Barone stepped in front to regain possession and bury the ball into the netting at the far post for her fourth goal of the year.

Junior captain Shannon Clancy picked the perfect time to score her first career goal which gave the Saints the 2-0 lead in the 64th minute. Caitlin Cahalan crossed in a corner kick near post that Barone dummied perfectly to Clancy at the back post which she side footed past the defender and into the net.

Siena came less than five minutes away from their fourth consecutive road shutout, but the Crusaders' Shelby Stand cashed in on a turnover deep in the Saints' zone to make things interesting late. But Siena, as they have shown throughout the young season, kept their composure and salted away the final few minutes to pull out another well-earned victory.

Holy Cross out-shot the Saints 14-11, with 10 of those shots coming from Stand. But senior keeper Elizabeth Barna made a career-high seven saves to earn her third win of the year.

The Saints look to remain undefeated when they finally return home to host St. Bonaventure Sunday at 1 p.m.