The University of Maine field hockey team opened up the America East portion of their schedule on Friday afternoon at the Maine Field Hockey Complex in Orono, and would score three first half goals in taking down the visiting Vermont Catamounts 3-1.
Maine started quickly, getting a goal off a penalty corner from Alexandra Sacker assisted by Victoria Tinghitella and Eloise Penty at 2:45 of the first quarter. They would double their lead 8:08 later off a nice drop pass from Kate Richardson to Olivia Geniti, as Geniti would step into the shot and slam it into the back of the cage from just inside the circle. The hosts finished the scoring in their solid start off another penalty corner, with this one being put in by Poppy Lambert 1:20 into the second quarter with a second helper of the first half going to both Tinghitella and Penty.
Despite some good chances for both teams, the scoring slowed down in the second half. Vermont got the only tally of the final 30 minutes on a goal by Meg Weyer 2:50 into the fourth quarter. Maine was able to lock it down and keep it out of their net the rest of the way to take their conference opener.
Tinghitella and Penty both finished with two assists in the Maine win, and Rozarie Mrazova made 12 saves in net. Vermont who finished with a 14-8 shots on goal and 9-7 penalty corners advantage, got two saves from ILa Gunner in the first half in net, with Merle Vaandrager making three stops in the second half. The Catamounts, won their America East opener last Friday over UC Davis, fall to 2-6 and 1-1 in league play. The Black Bears are now 7-3 overall and 1-0 in the conference, and will get back into non-conference action this Sunday when they travel to Connecticut to take on Fairfield University out of the Northeast Conference at 12 p.m.
