WORCESTER, Mass. – Freshman Maura Fox (Shrewsbury, Mass.) scored twice and sophomore Liz Early (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) added a goal and an assist to lead the Holy Cross women’s soccer team to a win over Yale, 4-1, at the Linda Johnson Smith Soccer Stadium in non-conference action Wednesday night. With the victory, the Crusaders improve to 7-6-1 overall, while the Bulldogs drop to 7-4 on the season.

Senior Chelsi Pugliese (Pembroke, Mass.) opened the scoring for the Crusaders at the 14:59 mark when she drifted a shot from the 18-yard line over the outstretched hand of Bulldogs goaltender Ayana Sumiyasu after a pass from sophomore Biz Shenk (Chatham, N.J.). Fox tallied her first goal of the night 35 seconds later to give Holy Cross a 2-0 lead. The Crusaders held a 4-2 advantage in shots in the first 45 minutes.

After a quiet 35 minutes to start the second half, Early scored in the 80th minute off a feed across the box from freshman Kellie Wiederhold (Wyckoff, N.J.) to extend Holy Cross’ lead to 3-0. Yale responded at the 85:19 mark as Trish Berkanish broke up the shutout when she cruised into the left side of the penalty area and shot the ball past Holy Cross junior netminder Mary Fekertic (West Hartford, Conn.) from a sharp angle. Fox wrapped the scoring at 86:00 when she buried a shot off of a scramble right in front of the goal mouth.

Holy Cross finished with 13 shots on the night with seven on goal, while Yale tallied eight total shots with four on goal. Sumiyasu finished with four saves, while Fekertic stopped three shots and improved her record in goal to 4-5-1.

The Crusaders continue their five-game home stand when they host Patriot League opponent Lehigh on Saturday, Oct. 17. The game is scheduled to start at 3:00 p.m.