Colby-Sawyer Charges to 5-1 win over Field Hockey

PAXTON, Mass.—The Anna Maria College field hockey team suffered a 5-1 loss to Colby-Sawyer College in their home opener on Saturday afternoon. With the loss the AMCATS fall to 0-2 on the season, while the Chargers improve to 1-1.

THE SERIES

With the victory the Chargers close the gap on the all-time series to 3-2. The Chargers' last victory was a 2-1 win in their inaugural season in 2011.

THE STORYLINE

The visiting Chargers controlled nearly all aspects of the game and gave the AMCATS very few opportunities to score over the course of the 70-minute contest. The AMCATS managed just one shot in the entire first half, and the Chargers led by three goals after 45 minutes of play.

Anna Maria had two great scoring opportunities in the 46^th and 48^th minutes—the first, a solid feed in from Nicole Denver (Springfield, Mass.) that was intercepted by a Charger defender, and the second, a one-on-one between Anna Maria's Kaitlyn Moran (Leicester, Mass.) and Colby-Sawyer's goalkeeper Xena Ras (Woodstock Valley, Conn.) that was kick-saved by Ras. 

The AMCATS were outshot 24-4 on the day.

SCORING

The Chargers netted two goals in the first half and controlled possession for most of the half. After numerous scoring chances off of penalty corners, Paige Veins (Middlebury, Vt.) netted the first goal on a reverse sweep in the 19^th minute. Jordan Teixeira (Exeter, N.H.) assisted on the goal.

Nearly 10 minutes later, Colby-Sawyer made it 2-0 as Alie Jones (Cape Neddick, Mass.) took the ball off an AMCAT defender and shot it near-corner into the open net.

Colby-Sawyer continued to dominate play in the early minutes of the second half as well. In the 43^rd minute, Teixeira scored for herself off a scrum in front of the net to put the Chargers up 3-0.

In the 55^th minute the Chargers opened a 4-0 lead off a penalty corner as Veins tapped it to Teixeira who passed it to goal scorer Erika Leach (Barrington, N.H.). 

Anna Maria broke up the shutout in the 56^th minute as they capitalized on their second penalty corner of the game. Lauren Beauregard (Hubbardston, Mass.) passed the ball to Ashley George (Leicester, Mass.), who set up the scoring strike for Moran.

A final goal by Colby-Sawyer in the 62^nd minute by Viens sealed the 5-1 win for the visitors.

GOALKEEPERS

Ras earned the win in net for Colby-Sawyer with a three-save performance.

Junior Bryanna Tobin (Deep River, Conn.) took the loss for Anna Maria, surrendering four goals and making five saves in just over 54 minutes of action. Freshman Rhiannon Fletcher (Royalston, Mass.) tallied seven saves in the final 15:48 of the game.

WHAT'S NEXT

The AMCATS continue their three-game home stand on Thursday, September 8 in a 4:00 p.m. non-conference game against Becker. Anna Maria will open Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) play two days later at home against St. Joseph's College.