BIDDEFORD, Maine – Riley Zielinski scored her second goal of the season in the 41st minute to give the University of New England their second one-goal lead of the game, and the Nor'easters held off a late charge by the Keene State College field hockey team as the Owls fell 2-1 at Blue Bolt Field in non-conference action Tuesday night, dropping their third straight.
KSC (7-4) continues to play close game after close game but dropped their third straight. The Owls finished 1-3 on their four-game road swing – one that featured a near upset victory over a nationally-ranked team and a surprising defeat to a now 2-9 team in consecutive games. Tonight, the Owls got off to a slow start, falling behind just one minute into the game as Gianna Korisianos gave UNE (6-5) a quick 1-0 lead. That was just one of 10 shots in the quarter for the home team, who also had five corners. Nearly 42 percent of their shot total and half of their corners came in the opening 15 minutes.
The Owls never really got their offense in gear on the night, never registering more than three recorded shots in a quarter, but they did tie the game at one with 6:25 left before halftime as
Meghan Daileanes notched an unassisted tally. There were just five shots and one corner total between both teams in the second quarter.
UNE controlled the action out of the locker room, with KSC needing to defend four corners within the first 10 minutes. The Owls stopped the first three with goalkeeper
Tori Kelly making a pair of saves, but the fourth corner proved costly as Ava Wolverton found Zielinski nine seconds after Ayla Lagasse's insert to make it 2-1.
Keene State controlled most of the rest of the game, winning all four corners in the fourth quarter including three in the final minute despite a yellow card on
Henley Gilstrap with 3:29 to go. With the goalie pulled, the first one came with 42 seconds to go and resulted in
Emma Bazin's shot getting blocked. She got a shot off again on the next one but Nor'easters keeper Riley Curtin came up with a big save, and on the Owls' final chance, they could not get a shot off as they moved to 4-5 in one-goal games. Remarkably, nine of their 12 games have been decided by a single goal.
"We played a good game of hockey tonight," said KSC head coach
Leslie Smith. "Tori did a great job in cage. Our team was connecting well offensively, and the pressure on the play defensively was strong. Unfortunately, the score does not reflect the effort and teamwork this group put into the game tonight. We are excited to be back at home this Friday after a long four-game stretch on the road."
Kelly finished with 10 saves in 58:54 despite the defeat, while Curtin made three stops in the win.
It was Kelly's fourth double-digit save effort in the last seven games.
UNE had a 13-5 advantage in shots on goal and 10-7 in corners (5-2 in the first quarter).
The Owls have dropped three straight in the series and have lost all five times in Biddeford all-time, being limited to one goal four times.
KSC returns home to take on Western Connecticut State University (5-7, 0-2 LEC) in a Little East Conference game Friday (October 9) at 4:00 p.m. It is also a Morgan's Message Awareness game.
