LORETTO, Pa. (Oct. 29, 2010) – Senior Haleigh Dunyon (Long Beach, Calif./Woodrow Wilson) (Long Beach, Calif. / Woodrow Wilson) headed in her 10^th goal of the season in the 55^th minute to lift the Saint Francis women's soccer team to a hard fought and thrilling 1-0 victory over first place Long Island on Friday afternoon at the Stokes Soccer Complex.

The Blackbirds came to Loretto with the Northeast Conference's best record, was unbeaten in league play, and had not given up a goal in NEC play all season. Junior Traci Flick (Montoursville, Pa./Montoursville) (Montoursville, Pa. / Montoursville) rung a shot off of the crossbar, but Dunyon was there to clean up the rebound at 54 minutes, 33 seconds.

Long Island, which lost for just the second time all season and the first time in Northeast Conference games, applied pressure over the final 10 minutes, but couldn't find the net.

Saint Francis improved its school-record win total to 13 with a 13-4-1 record, and pulled to within one point of the Blackbirds with a 7-2 league record. Long Island dropped to 13-2-3 overall, and 7-1-1 in the Northeast Conference. SFU will play host to Wagner at 1 p.m. on Sunday in both teams' regular season finales.

“We didn't get off to our best start, and we need to find a way to be sharper early in games,” said Saint Francis head coach Brenda van Stralen. “ But I'm very proud of our team for fighting hard and settling into a good soccer game. We will now get ready for another tough game on Sunday.”

Long Island came out with all guns blazing, firing seven shots at SFU in the first 12-plus minutes of the game. Senior goalkeeper Lauren Fearer (Mount Pleasant, Pa./Mount Pleasant Area) (Mount Pleasant, Pa. / Mount Pleasant Area) had two saves on those seven shots, and received another save from freshman defender Alecia McNiff (Marietta, Pa./Donegal ) (Marietta, Pa. / Donegal).

But the Red Flash withstood the charge and played evenly with the Blackbirds the rest of the way.