MANSFIELD, Conn. – Senior goalie
Erin Fainer (Thomaston) shut out Roger Williams University over the final 33 minutes in her first start of the season but two early Hawks' goal stood up as the Eastern Connecticut State University field hockey team dropped a 2-1 non-conference decision Wednesday afternoon at Rick McCarthy Field.
Coming off its first loss of the season by a 5-0 score to five-time conference champion Endicott College, Roger Williams (5-1) got goals off the bench from freshmen Hannah Timbrouck and Grace Rocheleau in the first half and held on after Eastern junior
Kaylee Drobish (Wallingford) sliced the lead in half with midway through the third quarter.
In her third appearance of the season, Fainer kicked out a career-high eight shots for Eastern (2-4), three coming after the Hawks had moved out to their 2-0 lead and three off of three shots by RWU scoring leader (six goals) Chelsea King, another freshman. Timbrouck scored her fifth goal of the year in the eighth minute – an unassisted streak that carried inside the right post with Fainer off her feet – and Rocheleau made it 2-0 with three minutes left in the first half when she re-directed sophomore Sara Carney's high shot past Fainer following a penalty corner by King.
With the Eastern offensive pressing and the defense limiting Roger Williams to one shot in the third quarter, the Warriors finally broke through when Drobish one-timed a crossing pass from first-year forward
Emma Sanson (Thomaston) past sophomore goalie Jill Haudenshield. Drobish's second strike of the year came off Sanson's third assist of the year and followed a penalty corner from sophomore
Liz LaMarco (West Hartford).
Three minutes after Drobish pulled Eastern to within one, graduate student
Bryce Makula (Guilford) rifled a shot directly at Haudenshield off another penalty corner from LaMarco in an effort to tie the game. During the game, Makula was primarily responsible for containing Timbrouck, holding her to just one additional shot in after the goal.
With six minutes left in the game, Eastern made another bid to force overtime when LaMarco's penalty corner went to junior
Leah Kowalasky (Middlebury) at the top of the circle, but Kowalasky's lead pass to the far post was just out of reach of a teammate and carried over the end line.
Roger Williams had an 11-6 advantage in shots but both teams had six penalty corners. Haudenshield made four saves.
Eastern visits Castleton University Friday at 6 p.m. in search of its first Little East Conference win after two losses. The Warriors posted their first win over Castleton last year after four losses in the series, capping a five-game win streak (one shy of the record) by scoring all of their goals in the second half in a 3-0 win at Rick McCarthy Field.
