Freshman Ashlyn Rogers (above) came off the
bench to play 34 minute in her debut Sunday.
MANSFIELD, Conn. – The Connecticut College women's soccer team dominated play with a 19-8 advantage in shots and got goals from five different players in a 5-0 non-conference victory over Eastern Connecticut State University in a return-to-play in the 2020-21 opener for both programs Sunday afternoon at Rick McCarthy Field.
Two starters and all five nine substitutes were freshmen for Eastern, playing its first match against outside competition in 17 months after coming off a 7-12 season in 2019. Having reached the second round of the NCAA tournament twice in the last six years, Conn has defeated Eastern the last four times the programs have met, all by shutout.
After collecting a blocked shot off the foot of sophomore Hannah Boldt, freshman Jamie Scarpantonio scored on her first collegiate shot with a perfectly-placed drive into the lower right side of the net in the 12
th minute. The Camels added two more scores in the first half and made it 4-0 in the first five minutes of the second.
The Camels settled for a 3-0 halftime lead after they failed on a number of near-misses. In a 1 v. 1 with Wallace after stealing the ball a minute after Scarpantonio's opening goal, sophomore Claire Williams sent her shot high and wide. Two minutes later Wallace made a sliding save when Boldt took a feed from Scarpantonio near the right post. With Conn leading 2-0, junior Emily Lorry's blast on a cross from the left sailed over the crossbar.
Eastern freshmen
Emily Wallace (Smithtown, NY) and
Rachel Hughes (Columbia) shared the Eastern net in their collegiate debuts. Wallace made four saves before Hughes stopped one over the last 17 minutes.
Eastern sophomore midfielder
Juliette Hogan (Preston) was Eastern's best offensive threat, putting two of her team-high four shots on net.
Eastern managed eight shots – none of them dangerous and only three of them reaching net – as 5-foot-11 inch Sarah Hall and 5-foot-9 inch Nici Scola – both freshmen shared the shutout in their career debuts. Hall made the only three saves the duo would record over her 57-minute stint.
Eastern hosts the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in a Little East Conference match Sunday at 3 p.m. at Rick McCarthy Field.
