ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Makenzie Muoio had a simple message for Gabrielle Ciambella as the Roberts Wesleayan College senior defender lined up to take a direct kick from about 30 yards away midway through the first half of Saturday's East Coast Conference match with Bridgeport.
"Go to the far post," Muoio told her teammate.
Ciambella followed directions perfectly and re-directed Muoio's beautiful serve into the net and then converted a header off a direct kick from StevieLyn Diggory late in the second half to give the Redhawks a gritty 2-0 victory.
"I knew that I could put it there and I knew that she could do it," Muoio said. "I knew that I could trust her to do what she needed to do to get to that ball in the box and put it in the net."
"I trusted her to get the kick to me and she did it," Ciambella said. "I got some body part on it and it went in. On the second one, I just had to bury it to give us a two-goal margin so we could close out the game."
The victory was the second straight for the Redhawks (2-7-1, 2-3 ECC) and places them in the center of the conference standings.
"It feels great," said Ciambella, a sophomore who recorded the first two goals of her college career. "I wanted this win today and the team definitely wanted it, too. I think this win will help us move forward as a team."
"She just grinds, no matter what," Roberts coach Sarah McClellan said. "You can always count on that kid to work hard every day. She just loves the game."
After a solid defensive effort against Mercy and a strong offensive outing against College of Staten Island in recent games, Roberts played its most complete match of the season.
"We were asking for the team to put those together and I think that the team did that today," McClellan said. "The quality and execution were there, the grit and determination were there and those things allowed us to win the game."
The Redhawks also showed resiliency, playing the final 24:42 down a player after a disqualification.
"It turned up the urgency," McClellan said. "Obviously, we lost some possession when we went down a player, but we made the adjustments that we needed to and had each other's back."
CIambella's second goal came in the 75^th minute, about 10 minutes after Roberts went down.
"That pushed us into overdrive," Muoio said. "We needed to stay locked in and we did. We kept the ball in their half a lot and we scored."
Sophomore Nicolette Knauf made eight saves as Roberts registered its first shutout of the season.
Roberts returns to action on Saturday, Oct. 16 for an ECC match at Queens College.