(Courtesy of Felician College Sports Information)

LYNDHURST, N.J. – A pair of freshmen produced three goals in a mid-second half span of five minutes, 16 seconds, and junior defender Katie McDermott (Monroe Township, N.J./St. John Vianney) cleared a ball off the goal line as time wound down to lead the Felician College women's soccer team to a come-from-behind 3-2 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference victory over visiting Georgian Court University on Saturday night at the Lyndhurst Recreation Complex.

The dramatic win kept Felician (6-8-1, 4-6-1 CACC) alive in the CACC playoff race. The Golden Falcons are tied with Dominican (N.Y.) College with 13 points for the eighth and final spot in the conference tournament. However, Felician has just one league game remaining (Tuesday at Post University) while the Chargers have three.

GCU (10-6-1, 8-3 CACC) currently own the #4 seed with one game remaining (Tuesday at second-place Wilmington University)

Felician trailed, 2-0 at halftime and was still behind by that margin with 23 minutes remaining in the contest. Freshman midfielder Macki Groves (Millville, N.J./Millville) then seized the momentum for the Golden Falcons, scoring twice in 79 seconds to pull her team even.

The eventual game-winner would soon follow when Marissa Nieves (Brick, N.J./Brick Memorial) took in a through-ball from sophomore defender Christie Calandrillo (Lincoln Park, N.J./Morris Catholic) and sent a low shot inside the right post with 17:34 to play. It was the first collegiate goal for Nieves and Calandrillo's first career point.

The Felician defense was tested on multiple occasions thereafter. Georgian Court generated three of their 11 corner kick opportunities after Nieves's goal, and produced a shot on each one. The first was blocked, the second was a header that went high, but on the third, as the clock approached six minutes, McDermott denied the Lions the equalizer by clearing a close-range shot in traffic from GCU freshman Katie Vecchio.

Georgian Court junior Farrell Pomponio scored a pair of first half goals, including one just 46 seconds into the game. Vecchio finished with two assists. Lion goalkeeper Casey O'Connor  faced 12 shots and made five saves.

The Golden Falcons defeated Georgian Court for the first time since 2003.