July 13, 2018
By UWS Admin- www.uws.com
Western New York Flash vs. Rochester Lady Lancers
Saturday 6:00 PM EDT – D’Youville College (Buffalo, NY)
No doubt that a lot of eyes will be fixed on the happenings in Buffalo on Saturday evening as the Flash will take on the Lady Lancers for the second time in three weeks. Western New York, who returned to their organization’s old stomping grounds at the Marina Auto Stadium during their previous days in WPS and the NWSL, took a 2-1 decision over Rochester with Carissima Cutrona scoring a brace. The Flash didn’t do themselves any favors last weekend as they squandered an opportunity to secure their spot in the East Conference Championship Game by dropping back-to-back home matches. They fell 2-1 to Connecticut on Saturday night, despite a furious comeback in the second half but were overwhelmed by Inferno Rush on Sunday and lost 4-2. But, the path still is fairly clear for them to secure a spot in the postseason as a win plus the Connecticut Fusion failing to pick up all six points from the weekend will get the job done. The Flash have experienced trouble at home however as they’ve lost all four matches at D’Youville Collge this season and have been outscored 15-7 by their opponents. Which is of course the great irony with this team as they are a perfect 5-0 on the road, so perhaps tricking their minds to think that this is road match may be answer that the Flash will need to get the job done.
Similar to their regional rival, the Rochester Lady Lancers have struggled at home but have excelled on the road. Despite a 1-4 record at the Marina Auto Stadium, Sal Galvano’s team is 3-0-1 on the road and will hope that recipe for success can come true one more time this weekend. After winning the three prior matches going into their first meeting with the Flash, they’ve dropped their last two matches and have fallen from first place to being in the three-way tie for third. Last week, the Lady Lancers went ahead halfway through the first half against the Rush with a brilliant solo effort from Brooke Barbuto, as the former Stony Brook product continues her wonderful season by leading the squad with eight goals but they couldn't find an answer to unlock their opponents defense and ultimately lost. Now unlike the Flash, their road to the East Conference Championship Game is far more challenging as a win won’t be enough to clinch their spot. They will need at minimum a win (and scoring a few goals to up their goal difference would help their case) plus the Inferno Rush to defeat Long Island and the Mutiny to defeat the Fusion just to give themselves a chance. Fortunately, they will know exactly where they stand by the time they kick off so if they get the results to go in their favor, they will come out trying to push the tempo early.