Mansfield, Conn. - Junior defender Jamie Belden  (Middlebury, Conn.) scored the game-ending goal with 4:15 left in overtime as the Eastern Connecticut State University Warriors team trimmed the Trinity College Bantams, 2-1, in women's soccer this evening at the Mansfield Outdoor Complex.  Ranked fifth in New England, Trinity (8-3-0) had allowed more than one goal in a match just once this year before Belden scored her second game-winning goal of the season off a corner kick by sophomore defender Maggie Bodington (Stratford, Conn.)  with 15:45 gone in overtime. Bodington's corner landed in the box just off the goal line, and Belden re-directed it just over the line before before Trinity senior keeper Monica DiFiori (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and a defender pushed it back into play.  All three goals were scored off re-starts and both of the Warriors' came from defenders.

Bodington had given Eastern Connecticut the lead 15 minutes into the match with a booming 20-yard free kick just outside the box which sailed high and just inside the far right post.  Trinity's closest chance of the first half came in the 24th minute when junior midfielder Nicole Stauffer (Cheshire, Conn.) headed a corner kick by classmate Kendra Lena (Madison, Conn.) that was stopped in front of the goal by a Warrior back.  The Bantams tied the game with less than five minutes gone in the second half when senior midfielder Alexa Menard (Wallingford, Conn.) headed in at close range sophomore back Sarah Connors'  (Winnetka, Ill.) free kick from the top of the box that rebounded off the crossbar after being deflected by Eastern senior keeper Rachel Skelton (East Lyme, Conn.).

Trinity nearly went ahead, 2-1, in the 59th minute when junior midfielder Laura Nee (Duxbury, Mass.) dribbled through traffic on the right flank and her hard shot was blocked by an Eastern Connecticut back.  Trinity senior back Julia leahy (Hingham, Mass.) knocked the rebound of the deflected shot over the cross bar.  Bantam rookie back Shannon Kennedy (Hartford, Conn.) helped force the overtime by stopping a ball in front of the Bantam goal that had gotten behind DiFiori on the left wing with 1:30 remaining in regulation.  The closest chance for either team in the first extra session was a a rolling shot by Trinity junior forward Andi Nicholson (Grafton, Mass.) from 12 yards away in front after she had received a nifty feed by Nee on her left.

The match was a near-draw in all aspects. The Warriors held a slim 16-15 edge in shots and both clubs totaled six corner kicks. Skelton made seven saves and DiFiori five.  The contest was seventh straight in this series which either ended in a draw or was decided by one goal. Trinity had beaten Eastern Connecticut by a goal the two previous times the teams had met on Eastern Connecticut's home field, including a 1-0 double-overtime decision in 2013. Eastern won, 3-2, a year ago at Trinity.  Only three of the 21 matches in the series have been determined by more than one goal. Trinity and Eastern Connecticut have both won seven matches and the clubs have tied seven in the series which dates back to 1994.