Gophers Blank Blazers, Stay Unbeaten Through Five Games

Multiple Points for Buskey in Four of First Five Games

FREDERICK, Md. — The 5-0 start to a season that Goucher achieved today by pinning a 5-0 setback on Hood is the second in the 24-year history of the school's women's soccer program. But never before have the Gophers strung together five consecutive shutouts in a season as they now have in 2012.

Coming off an 8-0 triumph over Notre Dame (Md.) earlier in the week, the Gophers (5-0) turned in another strong offensive effort. Lindsey Puopolo (Glen Arm, Md./St. Timothy's) got the scoring started with an unassisted goal just 6:30 into the contest.

Puopolo also accounted for the second goal as she upped Goucher's lead to 2-0 at 47:44 of the second half.

Sherlanda Buskey (Williamsburg, Va./Jamestown), who assisted the second of Puopolo's two goals, scored one of her own at 54:36, assisted a goal by Katherine Matthew-Parker (New Orleans, La./St. Martin's Episcopal) at 60:32 and then tallied an unassisted goal at 80:22 to close out the scoring.

With her two-goal, two-assist performance against the Blazers (1-4), Buskey, Rookie of the Year in the Landmark Conference in 2011, now has multiple points in four of Goucher's five games this season. Her totals so far in 2012: six goals, four assists for a team-leading 16 points.

Freshmen Lexi Rudolph (Kensington, Md./Our Lady of Good Counsel) and Juliana Harkavy (Memphis, Tenn./Ridgeway) both saw action in goal for Goucher today. Rudolph started and made one save before being relieved in the 69th minute by Harkavy, who stopped two shots by the Blazers.

The Gophers have not allowed a goal in 450 minutes so far in 2012, surpassing by more than six minutes the program record for consecutive scoreless minutes in a season of 443:31, set in 2003.