RUTLAND, Vt. – Manhattanville used four different goal scorers to defeat Castleton, 4-1, in ECAC East action on Saturday afternoon at Spartan Arena.
The Valiants improve to 13-6-2 overall and 10-3-1 in the ECAC East. The Spartans fall to 5-13-2 (3-10-1).
Manhattanville opened up the scoring at 8:52 of the first as Sonia Occhionero (Montreal, Que.) fed a tape-to-tape pass to Mary Rose Morrison (Ridgefield, Conn.) in slot and the sophomore forward roofed a wrist shot over Castleton goaltender Katharyn Dembowski's (Elkridge, Md.) glove side for a 1-0 lead.
Dembowski kept the deficit to 1-0 at 11:02 of the first robbing senior forward Shannon Coffey (Malden, Mass.) on a breakaway bid. Coffey, who received a cross ice pass from the Valiants blue line, skated quickly into Castleton's defensive zone and attempted a deke move going post-to-post versus Dembowski but the netminder flashed her right pad against the post and made the save.
In the second, Manhattanville scored two goals just one minute and 31 seconds apart to take a commanding 3-0 advantage. Sophomore forward Ella Hubley (Santa Monica, Calif.) tallied her fourth goal of the season at 9:30 with a backhander over Dembowski's glove for a 2-0 gap. Moments later (11:01), freshman defenseman Mallory Watts (Bloomfield, Mich.) notched her first-collegiate goal backhanding a shot just in front of the crease past Dembowski for a 3-0 lead.
Castleton responded at 14:44 on the power play as senior forward Laura Szwed (White Lake, Mich.) potted her team-leading eighth goal of the season firing home a loose puck in front of the net past Manhattanville goaltender Mary Evans (Detroit, Mich.) for a 3-1 deficit.
In the third, Lynsey Schill (Waterloo, Ont.) tallied her second goal of the season at 14:40 putting Katie Little's (Victoria, B.C.) rebound into the back of the net for a 4-1 lead.
Evans (6-2-0) made 13 saves for the Valiants while Dembowski turned away 48 shots for the Spartans.
Castleton returns to action on Friday, February 11 as the Spartans travel to Southern Maine for a 7 pm start.
