GORHAM, Maine  –  The ingredients for a letdown were in plentiful supply Saturday when the Eastern Connecticut State University women's soccer team faced the University of Southern Maine in a Little East Conference match at Hannaford Field.

Coming off a 2-1 upset win over the region's No.-1 ranked team Wednesday night and taking on the Huskies following a three hour bus ride, Eastern (7-5-1, 2-2-0 LEC) was scoreless at halftime against Southern Maine (2-10-1, 0-4-0 LEC). Complicating matters were the facts that the Huskies were playing at home and looking to end streaks of eight winless matches (0-7-1) this year and 14 consecutive losses over  13 years against the Warriors.

Relief came in the second half, however, when newcomers Michele D'Agata (West Suffield) and Haley Stewart (Windham) sandwiched their first goals in Eastern uniforms around a score that came courtesy of the hosts in a span of less than eight minutes that pushed Eastern to its first conference road victory of the season, 3-0.

The goal was the first collegiate one for D'Agata, a freshman back, and the third in the career of Stewart, a sophomore midfielder, who had scored twice as a freshman forward at Castleton State College last fall.

After a scoreless first half, D'Agata broke through for the Warriors in the 59th minute, carrying the ball down the left side of the field and firing a shot from the top corner of the box to beat junior goalkeeper Marissa Temple to the far post.

Less than four minutes later, freshman back Maggie Bodington (Stratford) – whose pinpoint corner kick had set up the game-winner against No. 9 nationally-ranked Amherst Wednesday at the Mansfield Outdoor Complex -- set up the second goal with a dangerous indirect kick into traffic in front of the goalmouth.  A Southern Maine defender attempted to clear the ball out of the air but it sailed high into the net.

Stewart made it a three-goal game less than four minutes later with a well-struck ball which sailed inside the far post. 

While Eastern forward Emily Becher (Brooklyn) -- the top freshman scorer in the conference -- threatened to produce her eighth goal of the season consistently throughout the afternoon, she came up empty on a team-leading six shots. D'Agata and Stewart, conversely, found the back of the net on their only attempts of the day.

Eastern junior keeper Rachel Skelton (East Lyme) enjoyed a relatively easy afternoon en route to her evening her personal record this year at 4-4-0. She made one save before giving way to freshman Katie Dadio (Hamden), who closed it out with an uneventful final 16 minutes in her seventh appearance of the season.

While Skelton and Dadio faced only one shot between them, Temple of Southern Maine faced 17 Eastern shots, stopping 14 of them, including all six in the first half.

Eastern  travels to Trinity Wednesday for a non-conference match at 4 p.m.