Central Connecticut’s women’s soccer team displayed two more strong performances, dominating both sides of play against Bryant and shutting out LIU Brooklyn, improving their perfect Northeast Conference record to 6-0.

The Blue Devils opened the scoring against Bryant in the 11^th minute of the match, with senior Charlotte Maurer heading a corner kick from junior Carla Jackson into the right side of the net. Maurer increased her team-high record of goals to eight, with Jackson now leading the team in assists with five.

“It’s a phenomenal return for someone who is a legitimate center midfielder, not our attacking one. For someone in that position to score that many goals, I don’t think there are too many players in the whole country doing that right now,” head coach Mick D’Arcy said of Maurer.

“She’s our leader, she’s our captain and she just leads by example in so many things. The goals stand out, but she does so much more besides just score goals so we’re really happy for her because the goals are a nice reward for all the work that she has done.”

Then in the 39^th minute, sophomore Tess Atkinson solidified her status as ‘Friday Night Lights Tess,’ coming into the match and making a sliding finish to extend Central’s lead to 2-0. Classmate Jenna Rae Covello supplied the assist, winning the ball at midfield, racing down the right flank to the corner, and then crossing it low on the ground for Atkinson.

“A replica goal from a week ago, great run from Jenna down the line, a terrific ball across, and Tess sliding through to [the] finish. Those two have played together before they came to CCSU, they’re best friends, they have a connection on the field, and it’s fun to see,” D’Arcy said of the two sophomores.

Covello has aided Atkinson in scoring a goal in now three consecutive matches.

In minute 56, Bryant was able to get a goal back, with Jamie Irwin sending a freekick into the heart of the box and teammate Jade McCarthy getting enough of a touch to deflect the ball past Blue Devil goalkeeper Ashley Cavanaugh.

“We didn’t want to sit back on the lead, we wanted to be the aggressor and go attack. If we sit back, we just invite trouble, so we were searching for the third goal to try and kill the game. By staying on the front foot we had our best defense,” D’Arcy said about the teams focus after the opposing goal.

The Blue Devils held Bryant to only four shots while raining down 27 of their own.

Despite the unlucky goal against them, Central’s defense had an outstanding performance, physically dominating the opponents and shutting down all attacks. This provided Cavanaugh with yet another easy night, with the senior only having to make one save compared to Bulldog keeper Meghan Dalton’s 12, some of which were very well done.

The Blue Devils then traveled to Brooklyn on Sunday where they defeated LIU Brooklyn by a score of 3-0.

They netted their first goal of the match just minutes into the second half. Senior Danielle Pearse notched in her sixth goal of the season with a shot from the 10-yard spot. Assisting her was sophomore Tess Atkinson, who supplied a solid pass for her teammate. Atkinson has now registered two assists so far in the season.

The second goal came from freshman Jamie Collimore, who would later score another only a minute later. Collimore positioned herself well to put away a shot from junior Carla Jackson that the Blackbirds goalkeeper handled poorly.

Collimore then netted the final goal after forcing a deflection error from the Blackbirds keeper again.

The Blue Devils once again dominated the attack, with a blistering 26 shots compared to LIU’s four. Of those four shots, senior goalkeeper Ashley Cavanaugh saved them all, improving her shutout record this season to nine matches.

The Blue Devils will look to keep their NEC record perfect, with only two conference matches left to be played before the tournament. They will start by hosting Mount St. Mary’s Friday, Oct. 19 at 6 p.m. for their senior night.