BRISTOL, R.I. – Two late unanswered goals helped Bridgewater State University defeat the Roger Williams University Women's Soccer team 2-1 in double overtime Thursday evening.

Bridgewater State reaches the .500 mark with the win, moving to 5-5-0 on the year. Roger Williams falls for the third straight game and drops to 4-5-1.

The game, originally scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. start, became delayed due to lightning approximately one hour prior to the start. As a result, both teams did not kick off until 7:30 p.m.

The Hawks reached the scoreboard first, with Devon Leighton (Scarborough, Maine) firing a shot from deep outside the right edge of the box, finding the back of the left side of the net to put the Hawks on top 1-0.

Leighton almost had a hand in another goal, setting up Hannah Noel (Adams, Mass.) with a beautiful pass p up the middle for a one-on-one opportunity with Bear keeper Kristen Rowe (Burlington, Mass.), but a tremendous jumping one-handed stop avoided another Hawk score.

In the second half, the Hawks kept the Bears' offense for most of the period, allowing only three shots over the 45 minutes. It appeared that Roger Williams would come away with the win, but a free kick by Molly Copeland (North Falmouth, Mass.) into the box ended up on the foot of Taylor Robitaille (Ludlow, Mass.), who knocked in the free ball to tie the game with 5:46 left to play, sending the game into overtime.

Copeland almost ended the game four minutes into the first OT, booting a long shot from inside midfield that bounced off the top of the post. The Hawks had a chance as well, with an open shot by Katie Fusaro (Hopkinton, Mass.) hooking left.

It took less than three minutes into the second overtime for the Bears to notch the golden goal. Amber LaPorte (Whitman, Mass.) fired a shot 25 feet outside the right part of the box, flying over the keeper and in for the game winner.

Kerry Condon (Whitman, Mass.) earned the win for Bridgewater State, playing the second half and both overtime periods while making seven saves. Rowe finished with four stops. Stephanie Jaques (Burlington, Vt.) made two saves for the Hawks in the loss.

“We cannot fault our desire to play quality soccer, to dominate our opponents, and entertain the fans,” said Head Coach Tim Moody. “We have done that all season and that won't change because that is the way forward. It could have been two-nil inside of 90 seconds because of the way we play. We had several players at their best tonight, which we were very happy to see. That is why we played so well and created so many opportunities. We scored a good goal. Devon came off the bench and placed the ball firmly into the far side of the goal. We all believed this would be the first of many but no such luck. We need to finish teams off and give them nothing to play for.”

“The only aspect of our game we need to focus on is finishing. It is the hardest part of the game, but the most important. We dominated possession, we got the ball forward and into the right areas, we are just missing a little bit of luck which all good teams need to win games. Had we finished early on and scored the goals we know we should, it would have been a blowout. I give my forwards a lot of credit; they never stopped shooting or gave up on the game. They continued to press, connect up the play and got on the end of all the crosses and into the areas that have been asked of them. They ran their socks off like everybody else tonight.

“If we continue to work as hard and as smart as we have in practice we will be the finished product. This will make us stronger in the long run, a good learning experience for everyone involved and in the near future several teams will be at the other end of a hammering when all systems click. We cannot wait to play our next game.”

Roger Williams hosts Curry College Saturday while Bridgewater State hosts Worcester State College; both start times at 3:30 p.m.