NORTON, Mass. – A late comeback by the Roger Williams University Women's Soccer team fell just short as the Hawks dropped a 2-3 decision to Wheaton College Thursday afternoon.

Wheaton jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the Hawks scored a pair of unanswered goals. Yet the Hawks could not net the equalizer to send the game into overtime, with the Lyons escaping with the win.

Sophomore Joy-Marie Fernandes (Woburn, Mass./Northfield Mount Hermon School) scored two goals and senior Cassey Muse (Candia, N.H./Central) potted the game-winner early in the second half to lead Wheaton.

Sophomore Christina Braga (Lowell, Mass./Lowell) and freshman Gabriella Verde (Miami, FL/Gulliver Prep) each picked up an assists as the Lyons (1-0-0) improved to 4-1-0 all-time against the Hawks (0-1-0). Junior Maddie Howard (Medfield, Mass./Medfield) and sophomore Hannah Noel (Adams, Mass./Hoosac Valley) scored for Roger Williams.

Fernandes opened the scoring at 6:33 when she converted a penalty kick, firing a shot past RWU sophomore goalkeeper Stephanie Jaques (Burlington, Vt./Burlington). She picked up her second goal just over 10 minutes later when she took a pass from Verde and knocked in fourth-career goal at 19:14. Fernandes scored two goals as a freshman last year.

In the second half, Braga lofted a pass to Muse, who raced past a Hawks defender and broke in alone on Jaques, who came out to challenge the play. Muse won the race and poked the ball past the keeper at 58:50. The Hawks responded later in the half by scoring twice in a span of 2:45 to cut the Wheaton lead to one. Howard made good on a penalty kick at 73:36 before Noel chipped in a rebound off a shot by sophomore Megan Hoover (Northwood, N.H./Coe-Brown Northwood) to account for the Roger Williams scoring.

After outshooting the Hawks 13-2 in the first half, the Lyons held a 7-4 edge in shots in the second frame to bring the final shots total to 20-6. Senior Lindsay Leddy (Warwick, R.I./Wheeler School) started in goal for the Lyons and made two saves before being replaced by classmate Erin Cawley (West Springfield, Mass./West Springfield) with under 20 minutes to go in the match. She recorded one save. Jaques, meanwhile, stopped five Lyons scoring attempts.

“They are a good team and deserved to win the first contest,” said Head Coach Tim Moody. “However for the last 20 minutes we took the game to them and put them under a ton of pressure. Once we got the score back to 3-2, we felt we might get a draw out of the game, but it was not to be unfortunately. We gave them a huge scare and new as a group we can play with them.”

The Lyons return to action on Saturday when they welcome Worcester State to town for a 2 pm contest. The Hawks travel to Babson Park, Mass. to open play in the Babson Invitational against Wellesley on Saturday at 11 a.m.

- Release courtesy of the Wheaton College Sports Information Department