Owls Traverse Past Buccaneers, 18-5

WESTFIELD, Mass. – Ten different Westfield State players found the back of the net led by four-goal efforts from Mercedes Rozzi (South Burlington, Vt.) and Marena Morales (Tolland, Conn.) as the Owls defeated Mass. Maritime 18-5 in a MASCAC game from Buzzards Bay, Mass. on Friday night.

The Owls improve to 2-0 in the conference and 5-5 on the season while the Buccaneers fall to 0-2 in the league and 0-8 overall. The game was called after three quarters due to dense fog.

After Sarah Naar scored the first goal of the game less than three minutes in, it was all Owls for the remainder of the contest with Brooke Oliveri (Somers, Conn.) tying the game 1:26 later followed by the go-ahead marker from Kara Racicot (Westfield, Mass.) who tallied her first collegiate goal to put Westfield in front.

Kate Fletcher (Ballston Spa, N.Y.) also notched her first collegiate goal on an extra attack, free position goal for a 3-1 lead with 8:02 left in the first.

The Buccaneers trimmed the Owls lead to two goals after 15 minutes, but five unanswered goals in the opening six minutes of the second period increased the lead to seven goals with Rozzi burying consecutive goals for an 11-4 advantage. Westfield had 14 goals at the halfway point with Morales scoring an extra attack goal with three seconds left in the half.

Westfield scored all four goals in the third quarter, including Allyson Faubert's (Westerly, R.I.) first collegiate goal, putting the game into running time before the game was ultimately called due to heavy fog engulfing the field.

Lexi Emanuele (Griswold, Conn.) got her first collegiate start in net and secured her first win, making three saves on the night. Christiane Rech was in goal for Mass. Maritime, taking the loss as the Owls outshot them 27-10.

Naar scored three times for Maritime while Karah Deveau scored the other two goals.

Westfield State will remain on the road for their next game against 20^th-ranked Williams College on Tuesday at 6:30 P.M.