KEENE, N.H. – Senior forward Drea Chin scored a hat trick, including the overtime winner just 1:34 into the extra session, as New England College came from two goals down to upend the Keene State College field hockey team 4-3 in non-conference action Wednesday night at Owl Athletic Complex, posting their first win in Keene in 16 years.

Records

• Keene State:  2-3
• New England College:  6-2

Postgame Interview (Coach Watson)

How It Happened
Looking to build off their conference-opening win in a rematch of the title game from last year and post their first consecutive wins of the season, KSC was looking good early, scoring three times in the opening 13:22 including twice in a span of 2:20.  However, they never scored again and, after halftime, were held to just three shot attempts as NEC came storming back to post their fifth one-goal win of the season and third in overtime over their first eight games.  The Pilgrims' lone wins by more than a goal came against overmatched Gordon College (10-0) and Anna Maria College (5-0 teams.  Other than that, all of their games have been decided by just one.

Early on, it seemed there would be no one-goal game in the cards in any fashion, as KSC scored just 1:48 in as Maggie Cahoon weaved through defenders and fed a ball in from the top of the circle that NEC keeper Jackie Mountford came out and tried to kick away, only to see the ball fall to Kalina Piasecki who had a mostly wide open cage to fire into and score for the second time in as many games for a 1-0 lead.  The Pilgrims wasted no time responding, as Lilly McCormack found Chin in the circle, who initially could not corral the pass but stuck with it and slid the ball to the right and past Keene State goalkeeper Clara Gorman after a bit of a scramble in front.  KSC's initial lead lasted just 1:24 of game action, but two goals in barely over a two-minute span late in their highest-scoring quarter of the season still seemed to have the Owls well in command.  First, Irini Stefanakos carried a pass to just inside the top of the circle and fired a shot that found its way past all the bodies in front and Mountford for a 2-1 lead in the 12th minute.  Then, the KSC sophomore forward corralled a ball on the right side of the circle and fired a centering feed to a waiting Chase Lambert who beat a diving Mountford to her stick side to make it 3-1 with 1:40 left in the first.  It was the first time the Owls scored multiple goals in a single quarter this year.

Unfortunately for Keene State, it would ultimately be the last time they scored all evening.  It remained the same two-goal lead at the break as, despite outshooting New England College 5-4 and being awarded five penalty corner chances in the second, they could not tack on any more.  Mountford made three stops in the quarter and the Owls had two shots go wide and one be blocked.  That proved to be important out of the halftime break, as while the Owl offense was drying up, NEC found theirs.  Gorman stopped Pilgrims' leading scorer Mikayla Vincent twice in the 38th minute, but New England College did get within one (3-2) with 2:27 left in the third off a simple corner play as Taylor Bailey inserted a pass to Giuliana Kevlin, whose blast was ticked home by Chin but may have been heading for a goal anyway.

Now in a close game late, the Owls had a chance early in the fourth to go back up two, but an aggressive Mountford denied Stefanakos in front less than three minutes in.  Other than that, NEC mostly carried the action offensively, outshooting KSC 5-1 in the quarter, and eventually found the tying goal off another corner play – their second of the night – with 3:59 left.  Lilli McCormack inserted the ball to the right side and, after two passes, the Pilgrims had Chin with the ball in the middle of the circle.  Gorman came out aggressively to try to deny her, but NEC's biggest offensive threat of the night got the ball past her and to McCormack right by the post who tied it at three after winning the battle with Hailey Patridge.  Keene State outshoot the Pilgrims 10-9 in the opening half while moving out to the 3-1 lead, but were then outshot 9-4 in the second 30 minutes.
No stranger to overtime, New England College had the first best chance of the extra session just 1:34 in and did not miss.  After Stefanakos could not carry into the circle, Alivia Proulx sent a long ball up the feed that Chin ran onto, carried into the circle, and slid the ball past Gorman in a 1 v. 1 situation for the game-winner, also completing her personal hat trick in the process.

Mountford (6-2) stopped seven of ten shots in 61:34 to pick up the win for NEC.  Gorman fell to 2-3 with a 11-save effort for the Owls.

Penalty Strokes

• Stefanakos and Piasecki each scored for the second consecutive game.  They have four of KSC's last six goals.
• New England College had a 19-14 edge in shots while penalty corners (7-7) wound up being even in the game.  Keene State's last corner of the game came at 44:23.  They had just two over the final 40:02 of regulation.
• The Owls had won eight consecutive games against NEC entering last year's matchup by a combined score of 35-6, but have since dropped a pair of overtime decisions against the Pilgrims in back-to-back seasons.  New England College had not won in Keene since 2006 and had not won consecutive games over the Owls since 2000 through 2002 when they won three in a row.  KSC leads the series 13-7.
• NEC head coach Carly Sweeney is a 2004 Keene State graduate.

Up Next

• Keene State visits Western Connecticut State University (3-4, 0-2 LEC) on Saturday (September 24) for a 1:00 p.m. start.  The Wolves had been blanked in four consecutive games and allowed 14 straight goals before beating Elms College 6-0 tonight.
• New England College is back on the road a week from tonight (Wednesday, September 28) to take on No. 14 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (5-2, 1-0 NEWMAC) at 7:00 p.m.  MIT's only losses are against the current No. 3 (Tufts University) and No. 12 (Amherst College) teams in the country in which they outshot those teams by one overall.