Box Score No. Yarmouth, Maine - A trio of second-half goals lifted Castleton (14-2, 8-0 NAC) past Saint Joseph¹s College (8-6, 4-4 NAC) in North Atlantic Conference (NAC) field hockey action at Lewis Field on Saturday afternoon.
The Monks outshot the visiting Spartans by a 6-1 margin in the opening stanza, but could not get a shot past Castleton sophomore keeper Jessica Galatioto (Queensbury, N.Y.), who recorded a pair of stops in the first half.
The conference counterparts made halftime adjustments and the Spartans wasted little time getting on the board in the second half, as senior Mercedes Maltbie (Warrensburg, N.Y.) beat SJC keeper Taylor Allison (Pawtucket, R.I.) with a shot off a penalty corner just 1:20 into the latter period. Junior Rachel Preusser (Craryville, N.Y.) was credited
with an assist on the play.
Castleton, ranked fifth in New England East according to the latest NCAA Regional Rankings, managed to tack on two more goals later in the second half, both following scrums near the goalmouth. Junior Blake Wardwell (Bridgewater, Vt.) added the Spartans¹ second goal of the afternoon at the 50:50 mark after collecting a rebound off a Preusser shot. Preusser, the reigning NAC Player of the Year, scored her 16th goal of the season just nine minutes later. Allison stopped a shot taken by sophomore Karissa McCoy (Waterboro, Maine), but the forward was in position to corral the rebound and pushed a shot to the back of the cage to account for the 3-0 final.
The Monks, applying plenty of pressure late in the contest, had opportunities to get on the board in the closing eight minutes but could not solve Galatioto in a shutout loss. Amanda Celata (Dedham, Mass.), Brittany Locke (Waterville, Maine), Theresa Hendrix (Scarborough, Maine) and Meghan Williams (Greenland, N.H.) all steered shots on target in the closing minutes, but Castleton¹s junior netminder proved up to the task on all four bids.
Allison made six saves in a losing effort, while Galatioto tallied eight stops for Castleton in the shutout victory. Saint Joseph¹s held slim advantages in both shots (14-12) and penalty corners (10-9) on the afternoon.
With the loss, Castleton improves to 6-5 all-time against St. Joseph's. In shutting out the Monks, the Spartans did something that hadn't been done in nearly five years. St. Joseph's regular-season shutout loss is just the second versus a NAC opponent. The only
other shutout occurred on October 4th, 2008, when Maine-Farmington blanked the Royal Blue by a 1-0 score.
Castleton travels to Husson University Sunday, October 21st to face the Eagles. The winner of that game will be crowned NAC regular season champion and will earn the top seed for the conference tournament later this month.
