KEENE, N.H. – Sophomore Marisa Lemoine (Berlin, N.H.) scored two goals to go along with an assist and junior Aimee Donaruma (Hampden, Mass.) tied a school record with four assists to lead the Keene State College field hockey team to a 6-2 Little East Conference victory over Westfield State University at on Wednesday night.
“This was a huge game for us,” said Donaruma. “Westfield played really well. It was a tough one.”
“We did some nice things offensively tonight, but we didn’t look sharp on defense,” said KSC Coach Amy Watson. “We made some critical defensive errors. If it was a one goal game, we’d be in trouble.”
Keene State (11-6, 8-1 LEC) remain tied with Bridgewater State for second place in the Little East. Westfield State (9-5, 5-4 LEC) saw its five game winning streak come to an end.
Senior Alex Billert (Center Conway, N.H.) gave Keene State an early 1-0 lead, scoring on a penalty corner for her 10th goal of the season.
Westfield tied the game at the 20:09 mark when freshman Taylor Chase (Holden, Mass.) scored on a rebound.
The game didn’t stay tied for long. One minute later, Lemoine put KSC back on top 2-1 with the first of her two goals.
Senior Kalin Billert (Center Conway, N.H.) scored her team leading 17th goal of the season to make it 3-1 and freshman Lyndsie Rabenius (North Hampton, N.H.) swept in a backhand shot to give KSC a 4-1 halftime lead.
Junior Sarah Pliszka (Enfield, Conn.) scored four minutes into the second half to cut Keene State’s lead to 4-2.
Donaruma set up Lemoine for her second goal of the game and 10th of the season to put
Westfield had a couple of chances to score with 4:05 to play. KSC sophomore goalie Caitlin Davino-Draper (Hanover, Mass.) made a save on the initial shot by sophomore Kelly Kenney (Suffield, Conn.) and sophomore back Melissa Habelow (Belmont, Mass.) stopped Kenney’s second bid with a defensive save.
Habelow completed the scoring, netting a penalty corner goal with 33 seconds to play. Donaruma picked-up her fourth assist in the game, tying the mark set by Deb Hersey against Rivier College in 1981.
“Aimee played well,” said Watson. “She’s our center midfielder, so she needs to be everywhere offensively and defensively.”
Keene State outshot Westfield 25-7 and had a wide 15-1 advantage on penalty corners.
Davino-Draper finished the game with four saves. Senior Khrystyna Mitchell (Shelburne Falls, Mass.) stopped eight shots for Westfield. Junior Jess Rodier (Oxford, Mass.) took over in goal in the final 5:33 of the first half, but didn’t register a save.
Both teams return to play on Saturday. Keene State travels to UMass-Dartmouth for a game against the LEC leading Corsairs (4 p.m.). Westfield State is at Western Conn. (12 p.m.).
