Faye Panagopoulos and Daemen women's soccer have rematch with D'Youville Saturday.

Women's Soccer Has Rematch With Saints Saturday

4/16/2021 11:45:00 AM

By: By Joe Kraus, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant

GAME #4
DAEMEN WILDCATS (1-2-0) vs. D'YOUVILLE SAINTS (0-1-0)
SATURDAY APRIL 17
KARRER FIELD (AMHERST, NY) - 12 P.M.
VISITING TEAM SPECTATORS NOT PERMITTED - SEE DAEMEN SPECTATOR POLICY

FREE KICK
Daemen continues their season Saturday when they host East Coast Conference newcomer, D'Youville, at Karrer Field. This will be the second matchup between the programs in the last six days. This is the fourth game of the Wildcats' 2020 season which had been delayed to the spring of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE WILDCATS
1. Daemen is coming off a 4-0 victory against ECC newcomer D'Youville in Buffalo on April 11. The Wildcats found plenty of offensive production as goals from freshman Brooke Amato (7th minute) and sophomores Nicole Grichen (19th minute) and Faye Panagopoulos (30th minute) gave them a 3-0 lead at the half. Amato later scored her second goal of the day in the 77th minute. As a team, Daemen outshot D'Youville, 18-1. This was Daemen's first victory as a program since their regular season finale on Nov. 9, 2019 versus St. Thomas Aquinas (2-1 victory.)

2. With her two goal effort Sunday, Brooke Amato broke a pair of milestones previously held by the program's all-time scorer, Jamie Boyar. Amato became the first Wildcat with a multi-goal effort since Boyar accomplished the feat against St. Thomas Aquinas on Nov. 9, 2019 and the first freshman to do so since Boyar's two-goal performance against the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown on Oct. 11, 2016. Heading into Saturday, the Grand Island native leads the team in shots on goal (8) through the first three contests.

3. Daemen returns 17 players from their 2019 team, including six who started at least 10 games. Grace Stranahan is now in her junior season as a midfielder and is coming off a 2019 season where she finished among the ECC's top 10 in 2019 with six goals (9th), five assists (6th) and 17 points (7th) and finished only behind Jamie Boyar in these categories for Daemen. Also named the team's Most Improved Player, Stranhan recorded points in seven different games and played 90 or more minutes in five games in 2019. Stranahan is one of five returning players who scored goals for the Wildcats last season, a group that includes senior Samantha Hanes, junior Katja Meyer and sophomores Alyssa Mercado and Faye Panagopoulos.

4. Daemen once again has had reliable performances from their goalkeeping unit so far this spring. Sophomore Tori DeLappi made consecutive starts to start the season against Gannon and Roberts Wesleyan. The Medina, Ohio native recorded a combined 11 saves through the first two contests this spring, including a career-high 7 saves in the season opener vs Gannon on March 27. Senior Maddie Flores has made two appearances so far this season and made her first start of the spring in Daemen's win vs. D'Youville on April 11. The Seattle, Wash. native has made 23 starts over the last four seasons and recorded a career-high six shutouts in 2019. Flores also led a defensive unit that surrendered only 13 goals through the course of the regular season in 2019, where she also posted a 9-4-3 goalkeeping record and finished third in saves (80) and save percentage (.833) and fourth in goals against average (0.99) among the ECC leaders. Megan White, a West Seneca native, made her Daemen debut in the final 18:18 of the D'Youville contest after not appearing in any games as a true freshman in 2019.

5. Head coach Dan Dolan returns for his 12th season roaming the Daemen sidelines. The longest-tenured coach and winningest coach in the history of the Daemen women's soccer program, Dolan recorded his 100th win with the program versus D'Youville on April 11 and now has a 100-92-11 overall record in 203 career games. Dolan added eight newcomers to the roster, including sophomore Tatyjana Scalisi. The Williamsville native transferred after playing her freshman season at Division I Buffalo and is second on the team in shots on goal (5) this season.

D'YOUVILLE SCOUTING REPORT
D'Youville is in its first season transitioning from Division III to Division II after years of membership in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference. The Saints were welcomed as members of the East Coast Conference this past summer and are playing an independent schedule this spring. The Saints are led by fifth-year head coach Jim Hesch and finished 10-6-2 overall in 2019. His lone winning season with the Red and Black to date, 2019 saw the program advance to the AMCC semifinal round for the third consecutive season. With DYC, Hesch has compiled a 30-34-10 record and he received the AMCC Coach of the Year award in 2018. Hesch previously spent two seasons as an assistant coach with D'Youville's men's soccer program and 10 years as the head men's soccer coach at Division I Canisius College and led five different players to nine combined All-MAAC Team selections. In 2010, Hesch became the first head coach of FC Buffalo, the top men's soccer team in the area, and led the club to a 6-4-2 finish and has almost two decades now worth of experience coaching at almost every level. As a collegiate player, Hesch won a national championship with Southern Connecticut University in 1990 before transferring to SUNY Cortland where he played from 1991-93 and was named a First Team All-American. Hesch then played in the National Professional Indoor Soccer League from 1995 to 2002, including time with the Buffalo Blizzard, and won the Major Indoor Soccer League championship with the Philadelphia Kixx in his final season. D'Youville's 16-player roster includes 11 returning players. Among the departed are second-team All-AMCC selection Kaylee Heschke and third-team All-AMCC selection Marina Campbell but the quartet of Makenna Magee, Sarah Milczarski, Laurie Poeller and Jordan Pachla all return in 2021. In her junior campaign, Magee led DYC in goals (11) and points (23) and was a second-team selection. As a sophomore, Poeller recorded four shutouts between the pipes along with nine victories and an .845 save percentage and was also named to the All-AMCC second-team along with Milczarski. Pachla was named to the All-AMCC third team after her freshman campaign saw her finish second on the team in goals (9) and points (21).

ALL-TIME SERIES: DAEMEN VS. D'YOUVILLE
Series Record: Daemen 3-0
At Daemen: Daemen 1-0
At D'Youville: Daemen 2-0
Last Meeting: Daemen 4, D'Youville 0 | April 11, 2021 | at Buffalo, NY

ON THE HORIZON
Daemen concludes their spring season when they host long-time rival Roberts Wesleyan at Karrer Field on May 2 with kickoff slated for 12 p.m.

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