Box Score

KEENE, N.H. – And then there was one.
 
In a game featuring a one-person wrecking ball against a balanced opponent, the Eastern Connecticut State University field hockey team became the only undefeated team in the Little East Conference with a 4-2 victory over defending playoff champion Keene State College Saturday afternoon at the Owl Athletic Complex.
 
 Keene's (11-5, 3-1 LEC) national scoring leader, senior Grace Bazin, scored her 31^st and 32^nd goals of the season but the Eastern (8-7, 3-0 LEC) defense neutralized the rest of the team in posting its third straight win and sixth in the last eight matches to take over sole possession of first place in the conference.
 
The Warriors never trailed after junior Sophie Ash (Mystic) scored her second goal of the season (in the last three matches) with 86 seconds left in the first quarter, then broke a 1-1 tie with a three-goal barrage in a span of roughly five minutes in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter to defeat Keene for the third time in the last five meetings on the Owls' home field.
 
A winner of three of its previous four entering the match, Keene fell to 6-3 at home while the Warriors scaled the .500 mark on the road with their fifth victory in nine outings. Eastern was picked to finish sixth in the seven-team LEC in the pre-season, Keene second.
 
While Eastern's Big Three scorers (a combined total of 27 goals) of senior Emma Sanson (Thomaston), junior Grace Barlage (Guilford) and Audrey Molin (Vernon) were limited to just one goal, Ash, first-year Keene State transfer Jenna Boardman (Columbia) and first-year player Ada Ellis (Mystic) chipped in their second goals of the season. Barlage took over the team lead with her fifth and sixth assists of the season, and Boardman added her fourth helper.
 
Boardman has now been on the winning end of both games of the Eastern-Keene rivalry. Last year, she was in the starting lineup in the Owls' 1-0 overtime victory over Eastern at Rick McCarthy Field.
 
In her seventh straight start, senior goalie Hannah Jalowiec (Cheshire) stopped four of her game total of five shots in the second half to record her third straight victory and improve her record to 5-2. The combined total of nine saves from Clara Gorman and Molly Diamondstein were not enough against Eastern's 18 shots.
 
By scoring her team-leading tenth goal of the season (second only to Bazin in the LEC), Sanson became only the third player in program history to score at least ten goals in two seasons, following Alumni Hall of Famer Mo Deegan and career scoring leader Alex Kallgren. The goal was also the 32^nd of her four-year career and moves her to within five of Kallgren's career record. Sanson's 74 career points move her into third place all-time behind Kallgren (93) and Deegan (79). With two assists, Barlage took over  sixth place all-time with 53 career points.
 
With four regular-season matches to be played, Eastern has already bettered its entire win total of 2024. The late-season run is the Warriors' most impressive since a run of five straight wins concluded with a 1-0 win at Keene State in the title game of the 2021 LEC playoffs. The Warriors won a record 14 games (against six losses) that year and qualified for their only NCAA Division III tournament.
 
Since starting the season 2-5, Eastern has turned it around to the tune of 6-2.
 
Eastern faces another key LEC match Tuesday when it hosts Western Connecticut State University at 4 p.m.  looking for its fourth win in the last five meetings with the Wolves.