East Rutherford NJ - Felician's Women's Soccer started off their 2024 season against Saint Thomas Aquinas. Going into this match, the women's team looking to be the underdogs this year came out in the first half with a 1-0 lead, however in the second half with impressive defensive stops, led to a last minute goal bringing the score to 1-1, a tie to start of the season. Here's a breakdown of what occurred during each half.

First Half - In the beginning of the match, Felician made constant defensive stops, with multiple stops from #22 Emily Eskridge. Goalie #44 Zoe Pite having multiple blocked shots helped the Golden Falcons to not allow any goals this half. In the 3rd minute, a potential shot by #19 Jalyn Tse but blocked by St Thomas Aquinas Goalie. The 18th minute led to another shot, this time by #28 Kayleigh Seeton, but once again blocked by the opposing goalie. In the 32nd minute, Felician scored their first goal of the season by #23 Filly Urias, with the assist coming from #24 Makenna Leszcynski, bringing the score to 1-0. Within the 39th minute, another shot came from Jalyn Tse on goal but leading to another block by the opposing goalie. 

Second Half - Going into the second half, the Golden Falcons kicked off right from where they were at, with another shot by Jalyn Tse on goal but just missed. Zoe Pite also started off right where she left off with 2 saves within the first 12 minutes. The defensive backline still showed out making more stops, making sure the opposing attackers didn't have any easy shots. In the 77 minute, with a one on one attempt, Zoe Pite made another save that could've been a game-tying goal. Right after, another chance for St. Thomas Aquinas but blocked by Zoe Pite and led to the defense kicking it out of bounds. It wasn't just all defense near the end of the game, as the offense began pushing but led to another shot by #10 Briana Franco but blocked. However, in the last 6 minutes, St Thomas in a penalty kick would score, bringing the score to 1-1. With the last 5 minutes left in the game, going back and forth, it all came down to a last second shot that Zoe Pite blocked that led to the end of the game being 1-1. 

Falcon's Player of the Game - The standout player during this game was Zoe Pite. During her first match as a freshman, she totaled 16 saves, with two of them being potential game-winning goals. Her dominance in this game helped the Falcons earn this tie making sure no other goals were allowed, a name to keep an eye on this season. 

Next Game - The Golden Falcons will be back on the pitch Sunday, September 8th for their first home game against the College of Staten Island, where the Women's Soccer Team looks to continue surprising people, but this was a great way to start the season.