Box Score
MANSFIELD, Conn. – Roughly one year ago against Framingham State University at Maple Street Field, the Eastern Connecticut State University field hockey team felt as though it was robbed by several late, questionable calls when the Warriors lost for the second straight year after a run of nine straight wins against the Rams, by a 3-2 score in overtime. The Warriors carried a one goal lead into the final two minutes of that game before the Rams tied it with 1:53 left, and won it 71 seconds into sudden death overtime. Both of those late goals came under question.
 
Wednesday at Rick McCarthy Field, Eastern (4-2) gained a measure of retribution with a 2-0 victory that never came into question. The Warriors dominated the game from end line to end line, outshooting Framingham (1-4) by 19-5 and allowing only four penalty corners – three of which came with the Warriors in possession of their two-goal advantage.
 
Graduate student Kaylee Drobish (Wallingford) and sophomore Sophie Ash (Mystic), both forwards, scored 14 minutes apart in the first half  and three Eastern goalies needed only two total saves for the team to post its third shutout in four home outings this year, and 13^th shutout – nine in the last 12 meetings -- in the 23-game series with Framingham.
 
Wednesday, sophomore forward Grace Barlage (Guilford), last year's leading scorer and an All-Little East Conference selection in her first year, connected with Drobish (third goal of the year) on a cross from the right side to give the Warriors a 1-0 lead with ten minutes not quite gone, and Ash came off the bench to record her first career goal on a re-direct between two opponents on Drobish's hard drive that made it 2-0 with six minutes left in the first half. Ash scored on her only recorded shot of the game, while Barlage unloaded eight of the Warriors' shots, six reaching freshman goalie Rowan Whittaker. Drobish also put all three of her shots on net, with senior midfielder Liz LaMarco (West Hartford)  -- another returning All-LEC pick -- reaching Whittaker on both of her shots.

The first goal followed a failed penalty corner that was cleared by Framingham but sent back into the circle by All-LEC senior defender Aly Kendrick (North Branford). First-year midfielder Rebecca Minaya (Stafford) passed at the right of the cage to Barlage, who cut inside toward net and sent a perfect pass to her left to Drobish in front of the net. On the second goal, Drobish centered a pass to first-year forward Audrey Molin (Vernon), whose shot was saved by Whittaker but deflected to Drobish, who fired a shot toward net that Ash got a stick on in traffic that beat Whittaker.
 
Webster needed only one save to drop her goals-against average under 2.00 (1.96) in her sixth start of the season – three of which have ended in shutout. In their second appearances off the bench this year, sophomore Veronica McKenna (Wethersfield) and junior Hannah Jalowiec (Cheshire) split the second half facing minimal offensive pressure. Starting defenders in front of the goalies that helped shut out the Rams were seniors Emma Stearns (Midway, MA), Kendrick, Morgan Anjos (Westfield, MA), and junior Angelina Falleni (Byram, NJ)
 
Webster's one save came on a shot by senior forward Kaylee Beck off the Rams' only first-half penalty corner with a minute left in the first quarter and preserved the team's 1-0 lead. After McKenna kicked out another shot by Beck with Eastern leading, 2-0, two minutes into the second half, the Warriors were denied on no less than four  scoring bids in the third quarter to expand the lead. Whitaker came off her line to stop Barlage from in close four minutes into the quarter, and repeated the feat two minutes later when Drobish found Barlage after making a deft move to shake a defender. In the final five minutes of the quarter, Stearns  set up junior forward Emma Sanson (Thomaston), but Sanson's low drive carried inches wide. Whittaker's finest moment came with two minutes in the quarter when she made a flat-out dive to her right to get a stick on another bid from the right side by Drobish, set up by Ash's feed.
 
Eastern plays its fifth home game in seven contests this year Wednesday when it hosts Salve Regina University in a non-conference match before visiting the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Oct. 5 at noon in its conference opener.