Lady Hawks Bitten By Owls

Leicester, Mass – Westfield State’s senior forward Amanda Burns (Hillsdale, NY) had a hat-trick to lead the visiting Owls to a 6-3 win over Becker College in the season opening field hockey action for both teams. Hawks goalkeeper Nakita Gosselin (Springfield, VT) had 28 saves in the loss.

The Owls tallied just three minutes into the game, senior Alicia Gardner (Athol, Mass.) fired a rocket from the top of the of the circle past Gosselin for the quick 1-0 lead. Westfield doubled the score at 7:01 when Burns had a fine tip-in from a cross from Gardner. Junior Jessi Gould (Canton, Mass.) made it 3-0 with a put-back off of the keepers pads.

The Hawks finally tip the scoreboard on their first shot of the season, junior Stephanie Dixon (Rockport, Mass.) made a beautiful rush down the right sideline and beat Owl’s keeper Amanda McCarthy (Franklin, Mass) on a shot to the left post to cut the lead to 3-1 at halftime.

Hawks forward Victory Sirchia (Goshen, CT) scored her first goal of the season to cut the lead to 4-2 halfway through the second half but it was too much as Westfield scored two more unanswered goal to take a 6-2 lead.

Dixon rounded out the scoring with her second of the game on a nifty cross from Brooke Cote (Fitchburg, Mass.) with just under 7 minutes remaining in the game.