Hawks walk away from Warriors 20-7

Conn. College tomorrow

MANSFIELD — The walking wounded that is the Eastern Connecticut State University women’s lacrosse team had (justifiably) no answers for Hartwick College’s balanced attack Saturday afternoon at Rick McCarthy Field. The Hawks scored five goals in the first seven minutes and eased to a 20-7 non-conference victory.

The loss at home was Eastern’s (2-4) first after two victories, but Thursday’s 13-12 home triumph over Montclair State University cost the Warriors the services of three starters, who left that game and did not return. The absence of those three players — which included top offensive player Caroline Stent — combined with the season-long losses of two starting attackman from the 2022 team — has cost the team nearly half of its starting 12 players.

In the first meeting between the programs Saturday, Hartwick (5-1) got three or more goals from five different players, among them sophomore Hanna Goodreau (five goals, two assists), junior Claudis Pollaro (four goals), sophomore Katrina Marten (3 goals, 4 assists), and 28-goal team scoring leader Kristen Vaccarelli (three goals, three assists).

While the Warriors were outshot by only nine, they did not help themselves by missing 6 of 7 free-position shots. Despite the double-digit loss, Eastern won the draw control battle by one, giving away more draws than it won only in the first quarter.

First-year midfielder Alexa Vizzini scored all three of her goals in the first 19 minutes but was neutralized thereafter, although she did win five draws and caused four turnovers. Shay Ventresca and Jessica Pyrek-Bennett combined for all five of the team’s assists. Ventresca, last year’s assist leader with 31, had three to improve her team-leading total to 14 this year, while Pyrek-Bennett had two to move to within three of 100 points in her career.

Ventresca and midfielder Kaylee Drobish followed Vizzini by each winning four draws.

Hartwick freshman Maddie Morrison stopped 13 shots in net, including five in the first quarter that helped the Hawks build a 9-2 cushion after 15 minutes. Sophomore Emma Alford made five saves in 43+ minutes for Eastern while sophomore Madeline Horkey stopped two. Alford was spelled in the final two minutes of the first quarter by Horkey, but returned to make three saves in the second half, shutting out Hartwick in the fourth quarter.

Eastern hosts Connecticut

College (4-3) tomorrow at 6 p.m., looking for its first win in the 13-game history of the series. Three of the losses in the series have come at home by one goal.

Two of Conn’s losses this year have come to nationally-ranked teams and the Camels are coming off a 17-4 road setback to a 6-1 Williams College team Saturday.