Crofut scores, but Bulldogs fall to Bears, 3-1

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Despite redshirt freshman Hannah Crofut's (East Amherst, N.Y.) first-career goal, the Bryant University women's soccer team fell to Brown, 3-1, Wednesday afternoon at Bulldog Soccer Field.

On a cold, rainy afternoon in Smithfield, the Bears (4-4-1) jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, while the Bulldogs (2-9) wrap up the non-conference portion of their schedule.

"It was cold and wet, but it was wet for both teams," said Bryant head coach Chris Flint. "And we are going to see these types of conditions down the road as we get into October and November."

The Bears took advantage of a pair of fortuitous bounces in the opening frame, both coming off corner kicks. In the 17th minute, Bryant keeper Kaylan Conrad (Avon, Conn.) punched out a Brown corner directly to the feet of Carly Gould inside the box, collecting the ball and firing a shot into the back of the net for the 1-0 edge.

Just over 20 minutes later, in similar fashion, after broken corner, Sydney Calas received the ball at the top of the box and lofted a shot over the outstretched hand of Conrad to up the Bears' lead to 2-0 heading into halftime.

The Black and Gold did cut the visitors edge to a single goal in the 62nd minute off a counter initialized by junior Allison DeBenedictis (Norwell, Mass.). DeBenedictis found Crofut in the midfield and the redshirt freshman did the rest, beating a pair of Brown defenders to get to the top of the box where she fired a strike to the bottom left corner of the net for her first-career marker.

However the Bryant momentum was short lived, as the visitors answered back with their third tally of the day off the foot of Allie Reilly in the 69th minute.

"It's just frustrating," added Flint. "I thought we had a goal off the Katy Biagi (Natick, Mass.) header in the first half and we were able to cut the deficit to one within the first 15 minutes of the second half, but then quickly allowed another goal, having to chase two, which is extremely difficult to overcome."  

Conrad made three saves for the Bulldogs in a very physical match, which included multiple collisions inside the goalie box. Freshman Caitlin Lodi (Peabody, Mass.) also logged her first-career minutes between the pipes for Bryant, entering the contest in relief during the second half.

"All we can do it move on and prepare for a tough match vs. Sacred Heart on Sunday and a fresh opportunity with the start of NEC play," noted Flint.

The Bulldogs open Northeast Conference action vs. the Pioneers on Sunday in Fairfield, Conn. Game time is set for 1 p.m.

For all the latest news on the Bryant University women's soccer team, visit BryantBulldogs.com.