HENNIKER, N.H. – Senior Maggie Hickey (Greenville, R.I.) netted a pair of goals while a trio of players also notched their first career scoress off the bench for the Roger Williams University Women's Soccer Team, as they rolled past SUNY Delhi, 6-0, on Friday afternoon at the New England College Classic at Don Melander Field on the campus of New England College. Defensively, the Hawks recorded their fourth consecutive shutout to open the season, a feat that has never been done before in the program's history.
 
With the win the Hawks improve to 4-0 on the season for the first time since 2013 and have now won 11 of their last 13 nonconference games dating back to 2019. On the other side, the Broncos drop to .500 at 2-2 on the year.
 
Hickey led the Hawks offensive attack as she capitalized on her first start of the season with the first multi-goal performance of her career, while the bench provided four more scores including the first career goals for Sabrina Sherman (Brentwood, N.H.), Tayla Salome (Lincoln, R.I.), and Violet Aitken (Cheshire, Conn.).
 
Roger Williams once again got strong work in goal and on this day, that was courtesy of the combined efforts of Morgan Strassburg (Longmeadow, Mass.) and Sami Brody (Clinton, Mass.). Strassburg secured four saves holding SUNY Delhi scoreless in the first half to earn her second win in as many tries in net for the Hawks. Brody then handled the second half but did not face a shot on goal.
 
The Broncos also employed a timeshare in net with Rachael Scoones (Waterville, N.Y.) handling a majority of the time in net and she was under constant pressure facing 11 shots on goal, stopping seven of them but allowing four scores, she took the loss falling to 2-2 on the season. Andraya Hunt (Cohoes, N.Y.) was in goal for a portion of the second half, making two saves and allowing two goals.
 
Hawk Highlights
Maggie Hickey: 2 goals (GW), 4 shots, 4 shots on goal
Sabrina Sherman: 1 goal, 1 assist, 1 shot, 1 shot on goal
Ariana Montero: 1 goal, 2 shots, 1 shot on goal
 
Morgan Strassburg: 4 saves, 0 goals allowed, 45:00 minutes in goal
Sami Brody: 0 saves, 0 goals allowed, 45:00 minutes in goal
 
For The Opponents
Kelsey Innes: 4 shots, 2 shots on goal
Micayla Slattery: 3 shots, 1 shot on goal
Caterina Fox: 1 shot, 1 shot on goal
 
Rachel Sconnes: 7 saves, 4 goals allowed, 66:22 minutes in goal
Andraya Hunt: 2 saves, 2 goals allowed, 23:38 minutes in goal
 
How It Happened
The Hawks opened the scoring in the 15^th minute courtesy of Maggie Hickey (Greenville, R.I.). RWU sent a long through pass that Isabel Gabriel (Tyngsboro, Mass.) tracked down just outside the 18-yard box on the right side. She tried to send a crossing pass towards the net, but it was deflected by a defender right back to her. This time she passed it back to Hickey who controlled the ball from roughly 12 yards out, beyond the left post and she blasted a shot into the top left corner of the net for her first goal of the season.
 
Roger Williams added another tally in the 29^th minute of play. After a brief on-field delay, the Broncos got a goal kick that went right to a Roger Williams player in the midfield. She headed the ball back where it was misplayed by a SUNY Delhi defender on the bounce and was controlled by Gabriel. She sent a through pass to Ariana Montero (Milford, Conn.) who weaved between a couple of defenders and fired a shot into the back of the net for her second goal of the year.
 
In the 37^th minute, the Hawks added some more insurance. The play started with a long through pass by Kelly Yadoff (Wyckoff, N.J.) to Sabrina Sherman (Brentwood, N.H.) who had a breakaway opportunity. She controlled the ball, crossed up a defender and got a one-on-one chance against the keeper from the top-right intersection of the six-yard box. From there, she banked home a shot off the left post and into the opposite corner of the net for her first career score.
 
Just over two and a half minutes later, in the 39^th minute, RWU struck again. Sarina Olson (Bristol, R.I.) sent a long entry pass that a defender had trouble handling. This opened an opportunity for Tayla Salome (Lincoln, R.I.). Her first shot was saved but she would not be denied as the ball remained loose trickling to the left post, and she ran it down and redirected it into the goal for the first score of her career.
 
The Hawks dominated the ball in the first half of play, outshooting the Broncos 17-5 including 10-4 in shots on goal.
 
The first goal of the second half came in the 77^th minute of play. The Hawks forced a turnover and worked to reverse field from right to left, and did so to Violet Aitken (Cheshire, Conn.). She gathered a pass from Sherman and sent a rocket of a shot from long range into the upper-right 90 for the first score of her career.
 
Less than two minutes later, Hickey wrapped up the scoring by notching her second score of the contest. She gathered a loose ball resulting from a bad pass by the Broncos and brought the ball to the middle just beyond the 18-yard box. She then used her left foot to unleash a shot into the top-right corner of the goal to bring us to the final score of 6-0.
 
Overall, the Hawks outshot SUNY Delhi 28-10 and 15-4 in shots on net while also receiving more corner kicks, 5-1.

Coach's Corner
We started out on the right foot and took control of the game. Once we scored the first goal you could feel that there was more to come. It was great to see a mix of players scoring different types of goals. We are going to be dangerous going forward.

If we can maintain our composure on the ball and dictate the tempo, we should be able to handle games like this one. We only have ourselves to blame if we don't get a favorable result.

Scoring early and often allows us to get new players into the game, give them minutes that they need and rest the ones that are bumped up of have a slight injury.

We were comfortable and only had a few issues, which we did to ourselves by giving the ball away in the wrong areas.

Considering the large group of inexperienced players on the team and for how long we have been together, the games and matches have been enjoyable to watch.

We want our team to be exciting, to be full of goal scoring moments, to entertain the fans who show up to support us.

We are work in progress and when conference games come around, we will have an identity, a style of play and system that we can rely on to compete with the best teams in our division.

What's Next
Roger Williams will return to Henniker, New Hampshire tomorrow for another neutral site contest against the winners of the first game of the New England College Classic, SUNY Potsdam. Game time is scheduled for 11:00 AM.