Worcester, Mass. – October 6, 2012 – Hayden Riley and Sarah Durcharme scored 2:35 apart midway though the first half to guide the Springfield College field hockey team to a 2-0 win in a key New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) against WPI on Saturday.

With the results, the Pride see their overall record level at 6-6 and move to 3-2 in the league.  WPI slips to 5-6 on the season and 2-3 in conference action. 

Springfield stormed out early, taking six of the game’s first eight shots, including a laser off the stick of Kelly Gallo that hit the post in the fourth minute.  WPI began to work itself back into the game, rattling off three straight shots before Riley dented the scoring column for the Pride, knocking home her second goal of the season at 19:15 following a scrum  in front of the crease. 

The Pride doubled its lead just 2:45 later following a penalty corner when a ball deflected off a WPI player in the crease, was collected by Gallo and fed to Ducharme for her first goal of year at 22:00.

  WPI came out in the second half and was rewarded a flurry of penalty corners during the opening five minutes but was not able to break up the shutout.  Timarie Villa notched five saves en route to posting the Pride’s fourth clean sheet of the season.  Liz Dufresne tallied nine stops in between the pipes for WPI.  MK Murray registered a defensive save for the visitors while Chelsea Cook recorded her third of the season for the Engineers. 

For the game, Springfield held a 19-12 edge in shots while the two teams both attempted eight penalty corners.

    WPI is off until next Saturday when the Engineers face crosstown rival Clark at 1pm.  Springfield also enjoys a week off, entertaining MIT next Saturday at 11am.