It was a successful week for the Plymouth State field hockey team. Their first win came on Saturday, October 4 when they defeated Westfield State 3-2 at Arold field. The Panthers dominated most of the Little East Conference game, handing Westfield State their eighth straight loss.
Plymouth State rallied in the first half with a goal from freshman Mel-anie Bates just two minutes into the game. Sophomore Lilly Silva added another goal ten minutes later, giv-ing the Panthers an early lead. The Panthers continued their attack for most of the half, only allowing one Westfield State goal from junior Laura Scott.
In the second half, the Panthers let down their guard and the Owls put pressure on both the Panther offense and defense. After many missed scoring opportunities dur-ing penalty corners, Bates added another goal with an assist from freshman Christina Farias to give the Panthers a two-goal lead. The Owls pressed on and after a series of Westfield corners and tough saves by Plymouth State goalie Kerry Brady, Stephanie Watt man-aged to score for the Owls. West-field fought to score again, but were unsuccessful.
Freshmen Bates and Farias stepped up to lead the Panther of-fense. Bates leads the Panthers in scoring with five goals. Silva added another goal to give her four. The Panthers improve their overall record to 4-4, with a 3-1 Little East Conference record.
The Panthers had their second victory earlier in the week on Wednesday, October 1, when they defeated rival University of Southern Maine 3-2 at Arold field. USM entered the game with a five-game winning streak and an overall record of 7-2. The Panthers victory added another win to their Little East Conference record mak-ing it 2-1.
The first half was a constant battle between both teams. USM scored first when senior Deedra Boudreau knocked one in. The Panthers? of-fense put pressure on the USM de-fense and goalie Jesse Superchi. Su-perchi was able to make a couple of saves, but junior Amanda Gutowski shot one past her late in the half to put the Panthers on the board.
The Panthers opened up the second half with a goal from Gutowski, assisted by junior Cait-lin Moran early on. The Huskies? offense responded and challenged the Panthers? defense, managing to score their second goal during a penalty corner from senior Renee Heath. Freshman Melanie Bates scored the third Panther goal with an assist from senior Whitney Swaf-field. The Huskies fought hard to score another goal in the final min-utes of the game, but were handed a tough loss.
Coach Bonnie Lord was very happy with her team?s performance. ?Kerry Brady was huge. Katwoski really came into it. Freshman Mel Bates scored the last goal; it was a great effort by her. The captains re-ally led on the field. It was a great team effort,? she said. ?The of-fense has been working on moving the ball around and they really did that today. We?ve worked so hard. We?ve had some tough games and we really deserved this one. We?ll take it!?
Both wins improve the Panther record to 4-4 and 3-1 in the LEC. Their next game on Tuesday is away at Salem, then they return home on Saturday to play four home games in a row.