Fitchburg State Field Hockey Marches Past Raiders, 4-0

Fitchburg, Mass. - The Fitchburg State University field hockey team downed the Raiders of Rivier University 4-0 in non-conference action on Thursday evening at Elliot Field. With the win the Falcons improve to 8-4 overall while Rivier slips to 4-9 on the season.

The Falcons received a pair of goals off the stick of sophomore Molly Richard while freshman Taylor Eyles and senior Madeline Hoffman each contributed a goal and a helper. Junior Casey Noonan and sophomore Maggie Gallagher each added an assist.

FSU notched the only score of the first half at the 22:24 mark.  After an initial save off the blade of Morrissey, Gallagher collected a loose ball and threaded a pass through the right slot to Eyles who deposited the ball into the right corner for the 1-0 lead.

The Falcons double the lead just over a minute into the second half. Richards gathered a cross pass from a streaking Hoffman on the right wing and wristed a shot inside the right post past the sprawling Rivier netminder. Next the sophomore posted her team leading 13^th goal four minutes later to push the lead to 3-0. Hoffman would add a late insurance goal off a right-to-left cross from Eyles to account for the 4-0 final.

The Falcons goaltending combination of sophomore Brittany Linane and junior Jordyn Conway posted the complete game shutout, while their counterpart Katherine Papele had 17 saves in 53 minutes of action. Raiders' Erica Royle made two saves in relief.

Richard's pair of goals moves her into the eighth position on the all-time goals list. She shares the slot with Casey Bromage and Sarah Proctor (07').

Both teams return to action on Saturday October 15^th. The Falcons host the Vikings of Salem State University in a crucial MASCAC match-up at 6 pm on Homecoming and Rivier travels to Simmons College for an 11:00 am start.