Box Score MANSFIELD, Conn. -- In its first Little East Conference home playoff match in the 18-year history of the championship, the Eastern Connecticut State University field hockey team won its first playoff match in 14 years with a 3-0 victory over Westfield State University Tuesday night at the Mansfield Outdoor Complex.
The win by No. 4 seed Eastern (12-6) – which breaks the 14-year record for victories in a season – coupled with No. 8 Fitchburg State University's 1-0 upset at No. 1 Plymouth State University Tuesday night – gives the Warriors their second LEC home playoff match ever.
Eastern hosts Fitchburg State (11-8) Thursday night at 6 p.m. in one semifinal, while third-seeded and defending champion Keene State College (14-7) hosts No. 7 Worcester State University Thursday at 6 p.m. in the other semifinal. The championship match is scheduled for Saturday at the site of the highest remaining seed.
Now 7-0 this year at home against conference opponents, Eastern trimmed Fitchburg, 2-1, at Mansfield October 7 when sophomore Alex Kallgren (Dudley, MA) and senior Brianna Passero (Trumbull) scored four minutes apart to wipe out an early 1-0 second-half deficit.
In extending its program-record win streak to five, Eastern dominated fifth-seeded Westfield (8-10) for the second time this year, outshooting the Owls 21-5 and amassing a 12-2 advantage in penalty corners in a follow-up to a 2-0 triumph at Westfield Oct. 20 which was a springboard for the current five-game winning streak.
Tuesday, senior Hannah Keiser (Danbury) slipped a hard shot under the pads of Westfield junior goalie Megan Fountaine on a shot from the right side to give the Warriors a 1-0 lead in the 13th minute Tuesday. That slim margin stood up until Passero and junior Paige Schneider (East Lyme) connected 13 minutes apart late in the game to give junior goalie Samantha Scavo (Redding) a three-goal cushion over the final eight minutes.
The goal was the fourth in the last three matches and eighth of the season for Passero, who had managed only two goals in the first 30 matches of her career. Keiser collected her seventh goal this year and 27th of her career (two behind the all-time leader), while Schneider had an assist on Passero's goal on a cross from the end line before potting her fifth of the season by re-directing a drive by junior Gabriela Meza (Norwalk), who dribbled into the circle on a penalty corner from junior MaryKate Custer (South Windsor).
Kallgren set up Keiser's goal which would prove to be the game-winner when she won the ball in Eastern's offensive third and carried a long distance down the middle of the field -- outmanuevering a Westfield defender in the process -- before threading a pass to Keiser ahead of the field on the right side. Keiser beat the Westfield goalie with a low shot to the far post.
Twelve minutes after Keiser lifted Eastern into a 1-0 lead, Fountaine rescued her team with a stick save of an Eastern penalty stroke with 10:32 left in the first half that kept the margin at one until Passero's goal made it 2-0 with 21 minutes left.
Eastern controlled play within its offensive third throughout most of the match, limiting Westfield scoring leader Holly Brouillette to just two shots, both of which were stopped by Scavo.
Scavo made three saves for her tenth win of the year in 14 starts, and Fountaine turned back 11 Eastern shots.
