UMass Dartmouth Defeats Fitchburg State, 4-1

Jacobs nets team-leading 18th goal of the season in LEC loss

FITCHBURG, Mass. (October 20, 2011) – The Fitchburg State field hockey suffered its fifth Little East Conference loss of the season, falling to the Corsairs of UMass Dartmouth, 4-1 at Cressy Field this evening.

UMass Dartmouth took an early lead midway through the first period as Victoria Doice (Jamestown, R.I./North Kingstown) connected for her fourth goal of the season for a 1-0 lead. Doice converted the Corsairs first score of the game off a penalty corner, taking back-to-back feeds from Eleanor Taylor (Fairhaven, Mass./Bishop Stang) and Taryn Cardiel (Moorpark, Calif./Moorpark) for the early lead.

In the second frame, the Corsairs doubled their advantage as junior Erica Allan (Amherst, Mass./Amherst) hit home for her seventh goal of the season, but Fitchburg State senior Megan Jacobs (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) kept the Falcons within one, connecting for her team-leading 18th goal of the season just 1:20 later.

UMass Dartmouth sealed their conference leading eight victory of the season down the stretch however, as Taylor connected for back-to-back scores to close the contest. Taylor collected her 15th goal of the season in the 64th minute, before finding the back of the net again just three minutes later.

Much of the game was played between the 20's as both teams combined for only 21 shots throughout the night. UMass Dartmouth held an 11-10 margin in targets, but dominated the offensive front with a 19-8 advantage in penalty corners. Senior Taylor Begin (Haverhill, Mass./Haverhill) totaled six saves in the complete game effort for the Falcons, while sophomore Kelsey Gallo (E. Greenwich, R.I./E. Greenwich) stopped seven shots for the Corsairs.

Fitchburg State (7-7, 4-5 LEC) will be back in action on Saturday as it hosts Southern Maine at 2 p.m. UMass Dartmouth (9-6, 8-1 LEC) will visit Keene State on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.