Box Score PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Seniors Hannah Keiser (Danbury) and Brianna Passero (Trumbull) scored five minutes apart early in the match and the Eastern Connecticut State University field hockey team went on to a 3-1 non-conference victory over Johnson & Wales University Wednesday afternoon at Scotts Miracle-Gro Athletics Complex.
The win in the first meeting between the programs gives Eastern (10-6) a season-high three-game winning streak and is the second time in the 19-year history of the program – first time since 2001 – that the team has won as many as ten matches in a season. The Warriors can tie the program season win record in the final match of the regular season Saturday.
Keiser scored her sixth goal of the season with just under eight minutes gone, and Passero scored her fifth five minutes later. Johnson & Wales (3-14), which has lost four straight and seven of eight, got one back with five minutes left the first half but the Warriors regained the two-goal lead on junior Paige Schneider's (East Lyme) fourth goal of the year.
Keiser scored from the top of the circle – her 26th career goal -- following a corner hit-in by sophomore Alex Kallgren (Dudley, MA), and Passero beat sophomore goalie Shannon Yoder with a rebound off of Kallgren's shot. Schneider's 12-yard shot was set up by senior Laura Chicorka (Enfield). Keiser and Chicorka combined for 16 shots that reached Yoder.
Eastern outshot the Wildcats, 31-8, forcing Yoder to make 23 stops. Eastern sophomore Maddie LaRusso (Enfield) didn't make a save in working the first half in gaining her third win in four starts this year. Junior Samantha Scavo (Redding) made three stops in the second half.
Eastern winds up the regular season Saturday with an 11:30 a.m. tilt at Little East Conference leader Plymouth State University. The Warriors are already assured of fourth place in the 12-team conference and will host a first-round playoff match Tuesday for the first time in program history.
