MANSFIELD, Conn. – The Eastern Connecticut State University women's soccer team dominated throughout and finally broke away when senior midfielder Haley Montesanto (East Haven) scored three goals in a span of nine minutes late in the match that lifted the Warriors to a 5-0 non-conference victory over Fitchburg State University Tuesday night at Rick McCarthy Field.
 
Eastern (2-0-0) had outshot Fitchburg (0-2-0) by a wide margin – including five fruitless opportunities in the opening eight minutes of the second half – before breaking free from a two-goal lead behind No. 24 Montesanto, who recorded the 24^th hat track in program history (first in five years) as Eastern improved to 8-0-0 in the all-time series with Fitchburg with its seventh shutout victory.
 

Montesanto, who had scored four goals in 42 career matches entering the match, fired in her three goals in a span of exactly nine minutes, with junior midfielder Juliette Hogan (Preston) and sophomore midfielder Lindsay Fishman (South Windsor) setting her up for the first two with their first assists of the year and sophomore midfielder Carly Alston (Franklin, MA) making the third goal possible with her first career assist.
 
The program record for the fastest hat track is 4:46, set by Rachel Berkowsky at the University of Southern Maine on Oct. 22, 2016 – which had also been the most recent hat trick prior to Tuesday night.
 
Montesanto scored the first of her three goals with 17:22 left with a 12-yard drive under the crossbar after Fishman won the ball at the left post and sent a short pass to Hogan, who one-touched it while losing her footing to Montesanto in the middle of the box.

Montesanto then beat Fitchburg freshman keeper Abaigeal  Gilman twice from in close situations – the first with 15:20 left and the second with 8:22 remaining.Hogan split two defenders with a pass that found an unmarked Montesanto for an uncontested 12-yarder for the fourth goal of the match. Montesanto closed out the scoring after Eastern played the ball out of the back for the fifth goal. Alston's through-ball  from the left sprung Montesanto, who side-stepped Gilman who came out to meet her, cut to her left, and left-footed the ball into an unguarded net.
 
Montesanto became the ninth player in program history with as many as three goals in one half.
 
Eastern sophomore keeper Emily Wallace (Smithtown, NY) preserved the shutout when she snared a head ball launched from inside the box in the final seconds – only the Falcons' second shot of the match.
 
Senior Alexis Tyrrell (Torrington) and Wallace combined in net on the team's second shutout in two starts this year, both making one save. Tyrrell had shut out Wentworth Institute, 2-0, in the season and home-opener on Saturday, making five saves.
 
Four players recorded their first career points when the Warriors eased to a 2-0 halftime lead behind an 11-0 advantage in shots. Junior midfielder Grace Muller (Johnston, RI) and freshman midfielder Hailey Cocca (Stratford) submitted their first career goals in the seventh and 31^st minutes, respectively, set up on the first career points and assists from freshman midfielder Dani Rovalino (Simsbury) and freshman forward Paula Caro (Carolina, P.R.). Cocca and Caro had come off the bench.
 
With her team down by two goals, Gilman started the second half for the Falcons in place of junior Allison Gough and immediately gave her team a lift when she denied Eastern with four saves – two on 1v1 situations -- in three minutes early in the half. She stopped consecutive shots by Eastern senior Sierra DeCarli (Tolland) and freshman Briley Harnois (Attleboro, MA) and twice turned back Caro from in close.
 
Eastern head coach Chris D'Ambrosio substituted freely in the final 15 minutes, with freshmen and sophomores seeing the majority of time. In the match, freshmen and sophomores collected more than half (13) of the team's 25 shots.
 
Eastern visits Brandeis University Saturday at 1 p.m. in a non-conference match. The Judges have bested the Warriors the last four times the programs have met after the Warriors had won three times and tied once in the first four encounters.