The Keuka College women's soccer team played a man-down for the final 60 minutes of its North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) game at Cazenovia College Saturday afternoon, but despite playing short-handed on a muddy field, the Storm showed resolve and mental toughness in recording a 1-0 shutout over the Wildcats.

Sophomore Britni Burch (Almond, NY/Arkport)netted the game's only goal in the 80th minute, her first score of the season, to snap a scoreless tie and senior Morgan Engelbert (Elmira, NY/Thomas Edison) made seven saves to preserve the lead for the Storm (3-4-1, 3-2-1 NEAC).

The Storm was left scrambling after junior midfielder Terin Brown (Wayland, NY/Wayland-Cohocton) was issued a red card with 15 minutes left before halftime. Despite spotting Cazenovia (3-7-1, 3-2-1 NEAC) an extra player, the Keuka defense clamped down. While Cazenovia kept possession for big portions of the second half, the Storm defense never allowed Cazenovia to net the equalizer, with Engelbert making several clutch saves to preserve the scoreless game until Burch found the back of the net.

On Burch's goal, junior Sarah Capek (Elmira, NY/Horseheads) headed a ball from the sidelines to sophomore Stephanie Havens (Unadilla, NY/Unatego), who received the pass with her back to the goal. Havens played a one-touch ball to Burch, who raced in from midfield and got the pass at the 18-yard line. Burch scored into the far corner of the goal for the 1-0 lead.

"We had to have this win. We can't tie the teams that we should be beating or else we won't make it into the NEAC tournament. So we definitely needed to have that win today," said sixth-year head coach Jamie Burke.

"The team played with a lot of heart in the second half. The field conditions were not that great, it was really rainy and muddy and Cazenovia had a lot of chances to score with us being a man-down. But we played great, especially since we were playing defense for most of the second half."

Keuka hosts SUNY Geneseo in a non-conference clash at 6 p.m. Wednesday night.