Dragons dismantle the Engineers

SUNY Oneonta traveled to take on the Engineers in their first game of the season. During their opening non-league match, Rensselaer lost 2‒0 to the Red Dragons.

After a 10 minute back and forth between the teams, Robin Confer intercepted a pass meant for Brooke Miller and scored Oneonta’s first goal. There was newfound fervor in the audience as the Engineers looked for an equalizer. Leighann Perciballi was able to take a shot at RPI’s goal, but was ultimately blocked.

Rensselaer kept pushing forward through Oneonta’s defense. With one minute left in the period, the goalie rushed to the ball and defender Natalie Sancilio scrambled to recover, but Sonya Heldman fired off a shot directly between them flying into the goal. Unfortunately, it was declared that Heldman was in an offside position when the ball was played, so the goal did not count towards Rensselaer.

RPI started out the second half on the offensive, immediately carving their way into Oneonta’s side of the field. For the first five minutes, Oneonta was on defense fighting Rensselaer for every yard, keeping their goal just out of the Engineers’ grasp. Rensselaer’s defense seemed to catch its second wind as well. While the Engineers brought the heat to begin with, they were run down by Oneonta as time dragged on. Eventually, Oneonta was able to push past Rensselaer’s defense, and Joie Tottorice surged past her pursuers scoring in the last ten minutes of the second half. The game finished 2‒0, with RPI losing its first game of the season. Click here for the box score and here for the RPI TV broadcast.