By Ryan Kircher, The Troy Record


LATHAM — The College of Saint Rose women’s soccer team has a roster filled with freshmen and sophomores. Those freshmen and sophomores do much more than merely fill the roster though.

As underclassmen, they’re asked to take to the field and win games.

And lately, they’ve been doing exactly that.

Case in point: The Golden Knights 4-0 victory over No. 2 seed Franklin Pierce in the second round of the 2008 NCAA Division II Championships last Sunday. The Knights got goals from freshmen Christina Cuffari and Gianna D’Errico to open the game and sophomore Amanda Schweers padded the lead later with her first goal of the season.

The win was, in many ways, a microcosm of the Knights’ success this season. A talented group of underclassmen meshing with the team veterans resulting in the Knights fourth east regional championship appearance in the last six years.

“This team is comprised of a lot of freshmen and sophomores,” Saint Rose head coach Laurie Darling Gutheil said during practice at Afrim’s Soccer complex in Latham. “We expect the kids that we recruit to be able to come in and have a role in the program, to be able to contribute immediately.”

The victory over long-time nemesis Franklin Pierce was a sweet one for Saint Rose. It was the Knights’ first-ever win over Franklin Pierce in the NCAA Tournament and handed the No. 10 Ravens their first loss in NCAA regional play since the Division II tournament went to its current format in 1996. It also snapped the Raven’s streak of 12 straight regional championships.

Saint Rose (18-3-2), the No. 3 seed in the tournament and ranked No. 21 nationally, advances to play the No. 4 seed University of Bridgeport on Friday at West Chester University at 1:30 p.m.

The Knights had the tough task of replacing last year’s three top scorer’s, all lost to graduation. A class of seven freshmen, along with 11 returning sophomores, have stepped up to fill that void.

Four of the five top goal scorers on Darling Gutheil’s team are in their first or second year. Cuffari has seven goals while classmate D’Errico and sophomores Jordan Bowers and Jazmine Farrell have six. Sophomore Amanda Deck has two goals, both clutch game winners, including the deciding tally in the Knights’ 5-3 penalty-kick victory over Franklin Pierce in the Northeast-10 Conference championship. It was the Knights’ second straight conference title.

D’Errico, a forward from Shrewsbury, Massachusetts is tied for second on the team for goals and has 13 total points. D’Errico said she had high hopes for this team from the beginning.

“Just entering the program we expected the best and making it to the Sweet 16 was definitely a realistic goal that we had,” she said. “Definitely, we have some really talented players on the team and luckily we just added to the phenomenal team and its ability.”

Saint Rose thrives on its team depth, with everyone seeing action regardless of their class. The Knights have received goals from 19 different players while 21 players have tallied points.

The Knights six goals in its two NCAA Tournament victories have come from six different players.

“Everyone has had an influence at some point during the season and, collectively, it’s been the entire team that’s got us into this opportunity,” Darling Gutheil said. “It’s a real balanced attack.”

Midfielder and fullback Jordan Bowers has scored a team high five game-winning goals for the Knights.

“We have so many people that can score,” she said of what makes the Knights difficult to defend for opposing teams. “We don’t just have one person that scores every game.”

While the majority of goals has come from the Saint Rose underclassmen their quick to point out it’s the leadership of the Knights captains that has brought them this far. Senior forward captain Kailey Egbert is tied for the team lead with seven goals and has 40 points.

“When we first came in they made it so easy for us to fit in and play with them.” Cuffari said. “They didn’t treat differently because we were younger.”

“The leadership on the team is really great, we have some phenomenal captains that have really showed their leadership throughout every single step of the way,” D’Errico said. “It definitely helps the younger players make an easy transition.”

Since the conference finals victory over the Ravens came in penalty kicks, it went in the books officially as a tie. The shutout victory over the five-time national champions on Sunday, though, left no doubt that the Knights are a team to be reckoned with in the Sweet 16.

“That’s always been a rivalry team for us and for us to beat them 4-0 is unbelievable,” D’Errico said. “We were a very confident team and very positive but after that win we knew at that point we were unstoppable.”