Wildcats Fall Short in Home Opener 4-2 to Sharks

LONGMEADOW, Mass.- Bay Path fell 4-2 to the Simmons Sharks in the Wildcats first home contest of the 2011 field hockey campaign today at Brantley Field. Two freshman Wildcats forward Katherine Chabot (Brookfield, Mass.) and midfielder Amanda Bridge (Laconia, N.H.) tallied their first career goals despite the tough home loss.

Coming off the bench,  Chabot scored the first goal of the game at 13:28 off a pass inside by the Wildcats' leading scorer junior forward Deanna Flagg (Enfield, Conn.).

Six minutes later Simmons' senior forward Lee Sutherland (Wolfeboro, Mass.) answered the call by knotting the score 1-1.  Sophomore Monica Doucette (Rockport, Maine) tallied the assist. Sutherland repeated the action and scored her second goal of the game less than thirty seconds later finding the right side of the net open.  Sophomore Courtney St. Pierre(New Bedford, Mass.) was awarded the assist.

St. Pierre would again send the ball inside to freshman teammate Kelly Williamson (Natick, Mass.) who found the back of the net at 24:01 on the clock. This would be the eventual game winning goal.

In the 29^th minute of the first half the Wildcats would take advantage of a penalty corner stroke with Bridge scoring after sophomore midfielder Anna Bankowski (Granville, N.Y.) trapped a great passed and sent it inside to Chabot who in turn found Bridge's stick for the scoring shot.

But once again the Sharks answered back in the 32^nd minute of the first half taking advantage of their own penalty corner. Senior Katelyn Tigue (Easton, Mass.) scored the fourth and final insurance goal for Simmons. Williams and Sutherland would each be awarded for the double assist.

Both teams would come back from the break playing tough defense with both keepers able to hold the score at 4-2.

Wildcats' senior keeper Samantha Berrios (New York, N.Y.) faced 29 shots, 24 of which were on goal. She had twelve saves in the second half keeping the Sharks from adding any goals. Sophomore goalie Renna Smith (Belfast, Maine) faced four shots on goal.

Simmons is now 5-3 on the season, while Bay Path falls to 0-5 overall. The Wildcats will host Elms College in an NECC match on Saturday, September 24^th at an 11:00 start. This is a double header for Bay Path with soccer hosting NECC foe Becker following the field hockey match.