The Hawks (5-6, 3-0) defeated Mount Saint Mary’s (3-8, 2-1) Friday 8-5 to remain unbeaten in Northeast Conference (NEC) play. MU, who led the entire game, had a balanced attack and a strong defensive effort to win their third straight game.
The Hawks received a pair of goals from freshman midfielder Marial Pierce and senior attacker Cassie Campasano. Junior midfielder Kaleigh Gibbons, sophomore Allison Stathius and sophomore midfielder Emily Barbieri tallied a goal and an assist each.
Pierce put the Hawks on the board at the 22:17 mark of the first half. MU held that lead for the next 20 minutes until Campasano scored off an assist from Gibbons with 2:17 left to play in the first frame.
The blue and white controlled the first half and took a 2-0 lead going into halftime. The Hawks had 15 shots but Mount goalie Sarah Leder stopped seven to keep her squad in the game.
Just 1:21 into the second half, MU increased their lead when Stathius scored. She assisted on the next goal, which came 31 seconds later from Barbieri.
The Hawks scored two more goals in the next 34-second span to lead 6-0, but after 40 scoreless minutes, Mount answered back with a free position goal from Kaitlyn Larrimore. Gibbons responded two minutes later to increase MU’s lead 7-1.
It took the Mountaineers seven minutes to score again as Lindsay Diaz scored on an eight-meter shot with 11:22 to play. Larrimore scored back-to-back goals and cut the blue and white’s lead to 7-4 with just 4:31 left to play in regulation.
Pierce scored her second goal of the game to stop the Mountaineers run to put the Hawks up 8-4 with just over two minutes to go. With seven seconds left, Mount scored on a free position shot to end the game 8-5.
After starting the season 0-5, the Hawks have bounced back and won five of their last six. Gibbons stated, “We love the game that’s why we’re here. Working together and just getting so excited at practice and bringing that out on to the field, that’s really made us play better together.”
Head Coach Denise Wescott said, “We’ve been playing well against good teams and we just keep fighting and getting better. I think we’ve just progressed forward and used the things we have worked on and used the things that we have learned from our games.”
The Hawks dominated shots 33-11 and Mount goalie Leder kept her team in the game with 11 saves, while MU net minder Katie Donohoe had two saves in the victory. The blue and white forced 10 turnovers and only had eight in the game.
The Hawks will travel to face Robert Morris on Friday, April 5 to try and keep their winning streak against NEC opponents alive. The game is scheduled at 1:00 pm.
