WORCESTER, Mass. – The Holy Cross women's soccer team took on the Bulldogs at home on Sunday, Aug. 27. A comeback run late in the game led to the Crusaders taking the 2-1 victory over Bryant for their first win of the season.

Bryant made the first move on the scoreboard in the first half with a goal off of a corner kick. The ball hit off a Crusader foot and rolled in for the 1-0 lead.

The Crusaders were dominant on offense just coming up short of the finish in the first half. They continued on the attack in the second half finally connecting to tie the game with about 10 minutes left of play. Senior forward Cerys Balmer knocked in a goal off a corner served up by senior forward Ellie Zern for the equalizer. The Crusaders built upon the momentum and within three minutes with sophomore Olivia Perez drilling her first collegiate goal to take the 2-1 lead with only six minutes remaining in the match. Holy Cross held off the Bulldogs to take their first victory on the season.

"I'm pretty proud of the girls. After conceding the goal so late in Maine, you're wondering what the mentality's gonna be like coming at today's game. And I thought they were fantastic," said head coach Ben Graham. "They just kept going, worked hard and they competed. I think they got their just desserts with those two late goals. So we're very pleased. Now we move on to Central Connecticut on Thursday."

HOW IT HAPPENED:

• In the first half, Bryant scored on a corner when the ball ricocheted off a Crusader foot into the goal at the 21:40 mark. 

• In the second half, the Crusaders scored two goals both assisted by Zern. The first goal was scored by Balmer at the 81:08 mark and the second occurred just minutes after by Perez

• The Crusaders out-shot the Bulldogs 31-6 in the match leading 12-4 at halftime and 19-2 by the final whistle

• Holy Cross led 6-5 in corners.

INSIDE THE BOX:

• Balmer tacked on her third goal of the season to tie the game up 1-1

• Perez netted her first collegiate goal going 1-for-3 on shots on goal

• Zern earned back-to-back assists on the day.

PLAYER QUOTES:

• "I owe the goals to the girls. In training they have been working hard and competing every single day and it's made us better as an offensive and defensive front. I owe all my goals to the team. All of them [goals] have been created by great serves from Sydney Baldwin and Ellie Zern, so I really owe it to them. Today's game started a little bit slow, but as soon as we started to pick it up, I think that's where we really proved to ourselves that we were gonna keep on going and we weren't ever gonna let up. That means more to me than winning five to one. It's better that we really fought the whole game out and came out with a result." #24 Cerys Balmer

• "My first collegiate goal, it's just such an amazing feeling. Honestly, it's a little bit of a blur. It was just an amazing feeling and I'm so happy to finally get one and hopefully keep going and get more and more as the season goes on. Today we started off a little bit slow in the first half, but we recouped at halftime, came back even stronger. We worked hard. We competed. We had lots of shots. We all did our job and got the result we wanted." #17 Olivia Perez

• "Today was a great game for us. The first half was a little sloppy, but we came into the halftime after taking and we made the adjustments needed to the formation. And once we got one goal, the second goal came. I credit everyone for gaining the corner. Usually when it's on the left, I usually just clip it in and try to find Cerys on the back post and that is exactly what she did. So I credit Cerys for that. The second goal was not much later. Coach always says I have to get to the endline and I dig it to the endline and Liv was in a perfect position to score." #7 Ellie Zern

UP NEXT:

• The Crusaders return to action heading to New Britain, Conn. on Thursday, August 31 to take on the Blue Devils away at 6:00 p.m.