Cooke Records Hat Trick in Bobcats' Win vs. Maine

Sunday, September 5

Orono, ME

12:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

3-0-0

Maine

2-1-1

QUWS21

Maine

Rebecca Cooke runs through starting lineup line

Photo by: Meg Collins

9/5/2021 2:29:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

Cooke, Salas score for QU, Bobcats down the Black Bears

By: QU Athletic Communications

ORONO, Maine - The Quinnipiac women's soccer team downed the Maine Black Bears on Sunday, Sept. 5 on the road in an exciting 4-1 victory. Sophomore Rebecca Cooke continued her superb play and tallied a hat trick in the win. Senior Selena Salas added one goal of her own to lift the Bobcats over the Black Bears.

Junior Meaghan Phillips was close to her third straight shutout, but Maine scored with three seconds remaining in the match. She tallied seven saves in the win.

The Bobcats improve to 3-0 on the season, which is the best start for the program since 2019. Quinnipiac has scored 11 goals in the first three games played, allowing just one against.

SCORE
Quinnipiac 4, Maine 1

LOCATION
Mahaney Diamond | Orono, Maine

RECORDS
Quinnipiac (3-0-0, 0-0-0 MAAC), Maine (2-1-1, 0-0-0 AE)

SCORING SUMMARY

First Half

(29' – Quinnipiac 1, Maine 0): After an evenly played opening 25 minutes, the Bobcats broke through and scored to go up 1-0 in the 29th minute. Quinnipiac earned a corner kick, and junior Markela Bejleri recovered the ball after it was fumbled in the box between a few players. Bejleri flicked it backwards and the ball hit the crossbar. Sophomore Rebecca Cooke was in the perfect spot on the back post and volleyed the ball back into the net first time to give the Bobcats a 1-0 lead.
(33' – Quinnipiac 2, Maine 0): Cooke scored her second goal of the game about four minutes later. She received a pass from first-year Madison Mandleur and took three dribbles to get the ball on her right foot and drove the ball from about 35 yards out and it sailed over Maine's Kira Kutzinski's head into the top right corner of the goal.

Second Half

(60' – Quinnipiac 3, Maine 0): Bejleri was taken down inside the 18-yard box, resulting in a penalty kick for Quinnipiac. Senior Selena Salas stepped up and calmly sent the ball to the bottom left side of the goal to give the Bobcats a 3-0 lead.
(71' – Quinnipiac 4, Maine 0): Cooke tallied her third goal of the game after battling in the box and recovering the ball from a Maine defender. She placed it with her left foot past Kutzinski in the right side of the goal.
(90' – Quinnipiac 4, Maine 1): The Black Bears scored in the final seconds of the game off of a set piece from 50 yards outside. Emma Donovan scored past junior Meaghan Phillips, and Tiana Bucknor added the assist.

PROGRAM HISTORY NOTES

The Bobcats improved to 3-1 all-time against the Maine Black Bears. The last win against Maine came in 2015.
Quinnipiac's 3-0 start is the team's best since 2018.
The Bobcats have scored a massive 11 goals in just three games played.
Cooke is the first Bobcat since 2017 to net three goals in one game. Nadya Gill recorded three goals in an 11-0 win over Saint Peter's on Sept. 16, 2017. She tallied a hat trick twice in her career. The only other Bobcat to record a hat trick was Furtana Velaj, who had four hat tricks in her career (2008-2011).

QUICK STATS

Cooke tallied six points in the 4-1 win over Maine. The sophomore now has 13 points this season through just three games played (4.33 pts/g). She has already surpassed her point total from her rookie campaign (11 points).
Salas netted her second goal of the year off of a penalty kick.
Mandleur and Bejleri recorded assists in the win.
Phillips tallied seven saves and is 3-0 on the year with a 0.33 goals against average.
Cooke led the team with three shots on net.
The shots were distributed evenly throughout the game. Maine had eight shots on goal, while Quinnipiac had seven.

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