Box Score  

MANSFIELD, Conn. – Struggling at home this year, the Eastern Connecticut State University women's soccer team picked a perfect day to break out (on Senior Day), shutting down the U.S. Coast Guard Academy on six shots and getting two second-half goals from junior forward Katelyn Herbert (Bethpage, NY) for its first home win of the year in a 3-0 non-conference win Saturday over the U.S. Coast Guard Academy at Rick McCarthy Field
 
Herbert recorded her third career two-goal game – second against Coast Guard (0-5-0) -- and sophomore Kaeden Dublin (Maple Grove, MN) made three saves – the final coming from point-blank range with Eastern leading 3-0 with eight minutes left – to record her second shutout in her last three starts. A year ago nearly to the day, Dublin made seven saves to post her second career win, 3-1, against Coast Guard at Nitchman Field.
 
Having lost 1-0 decisions twice in its three home losses this year, Eastern (2-3-0) got on the board  with just under two minutes left in the first half, breaking a scoreless tie on sophomore midfielder Emily Dunlea's (Attleboro, MA) first career goal. Dunlea was awarded a penalty kick when the Bears were whistled for a handball in the box following an Eastern corner kick. She cleanly knocked it on the ground inside the left post against USCGA senior keeper Emily Scharnitzky (Charleston, SC).
 
The lead was enough for Dublin, but Herbert – the team's active career scoring leader –was able to provide a cushion when she scored twice in the second half. The first one came less than three minutes into the half on a header from the left post moments after her own corner kick and the second came midway through the half when she scored again from near the left post, this one also coming soon after a corner kick, this one taken by senior forward Hailey Cocca (Stratford).  Cocca (team-leading four assists this year) was also credited with an assist – along with senior forward Olivia Mullings (Newington) – on Herbert's first goal.
 
Eastern's defense – the top-ranked one in the Little East Conference last year – allowed only one shot in the first half, that coming by freshman  forward Laurianne Gaillard (Owings, MD) with 16 minutes left in a scoreless game. The starting defense which gave up only six shots in the game included seniors Daria DiBiasio (Richmond, RI), Morgan Kelly (Florida, NY) and Olivia Davidson (Waterford) and first-year player Tori Babineau (Charlestown, RI).
 
In that scoreless first half, Eastern had six shots, two of them considered to be dangerous on drives by senior midfielder Mia DeMartino (Tolland) and first-year midfielder Glenda Zhiminaicela (Clinton) 12 minutes apart early in the half. DeMartino received a pass and found herself ahead of the field on the right wing, but knocked it softly wide of the right post. Ziminaicela's carried over the top.
 
With Eastern leading 2-0, Dublin kept the shutout intact with key plays in the opening 11 minutes of the second half. On the first one, she came off her line to punch out a corner kick from junior midfielder Tealani Wasson (Kahuka, HI), and minutes later leaped near the left post to gather in a hard drive of senior defender Grace Flynn's (Severna Park, MD) free kick from above the circle.
 
A minute before Herbert's second goal made it 3-0 first-year forward Brooke Bolles (Preston) took a pass from DeMartino and found herself alone on the right side, but Scharnitzky made her only save count when she moved to cover the right post and extended high to tip the high drive over the crossbar.
 
Eastern visits Westfield State University Wednesday at 7 p.m. in a non-conference match before opening its conference season Saturday by hosting the University of Southern Maine at 1 p.m. Since Eastern won 20 straight in the series with Southern Maine – the defending LEC champion and No. 1-ranked team in the LEC pre-season poll – the Huskies are 3-0-1 against Eastern, having won three straight by shutout.
 
In addition to the aforementioned seniors, others honored following the game were Dani Rovalino (Simsbury), Madison Palmer (Storrs) and Sara Honold (Wantage, NJ). Rovalino started and played 28 minutes and Honold started and played 70 minutes. Palmer sat out her first match of the year due to injury.