Ravens control game start to finish

RINDGE, N.H. (October 12, 2015) – On a day when a pair of seniors scored their first collegiate goals, it was only the beginning of the scoring for the Franklin Pierce University field hockey team at Sodexo Field on Monday afternoon. The Ravens discovered the back of the net seven times on Columbus Day, including two each from senior forwards Chelsey Burnell (Porter, Maine) and Samantha Hulme (Simsbury, Conn.), as they rolled to a 7-0 win over St. Thomas Aquinas in non-conference play.

With the win, Franklin Pierce improves to 8-5 (3-4 Northeast-10), while St. Thomas Aquinas falls to 1-11. Monday marked the first-ever meeting between the two teams, as St. Thomas Aquinas is in its inaugural season of field hockey.

For Franklin Pierce, seven goals marked the second-highest total in program history. The only time the Ravens had previously scored seven or more times in a game was also at Sodexo Field, on Sept. 29, 2010, when they defeated Saint Anselm, 8-2. The seven-goal triumph set a new program record for largest margin of victory. Previously, Franklin Pierce had won by six goals on five different occasions.

Franklin Pierce controlled the game both in terms of possession and statistics from the get-go on Monday afternoon. On the way to the blowout victory, the Ravens amassed advantages of 42-2 in shot attempts, 21-1 in shots on goal and 24-0 in penalty corners.

The goals came early and they came often from the Ravens after the high noon start. In just the seventh minute, the crimson and grey opened the scoring off of a corner play. Burnell inserted the ball to the top of the circle for senior midfielder Natalia Bachelder (South Berwick, Maine), who started to dribble to her right. After Bachelder drew the closest defender, she laid the ball back to the left for sophomore forward Erin Smith (Templeton, Mass.). Smith let a shot fly from the top of the circle and it banged the backboard inside the left post for her third goal of the season.

Franklin Pierce would push the lead to 2-0 in the 21st minute, on the first collegiate goal for Hulme. Junior midfielder Kenady Kelly (Plymouth, N.H.) had the ball outside the circle on the left side and sent a long cross towards the goal. Hulme was stationed in front of the left post and was able to re-direct the ball past St. Thomas Aquinas freshman goalkeeper Nicole Amerling to notch her first goal.

Another senior picked up her first career goal in the 26th minute to push the lead to 3-0. Senior forward Molly Burke (West Bridgewater, Mass.) collected a loose ball approximately five yards way, in front of and outside of the right post and put it to the back of the cage for her first goal.

The Ravens took the 3-0 lead into halftime and then tacked on four more goals in the second half to turn the game into a rout. In the 38th minute, junior forward Andrea Fahey (Hudson, Mass.) possessed the ball into the circle and took it along the end line on the right side, eluding multiple defenders in the process. Ultimately, she centered the ball to Burnell eight yards in front of the right post and the latter finished her fifth of the season from there.

Not content with just her first goal, Hulme added a second in the 51st minute to make it a 4-0 game. Amid a scramble in the goalmouth, she was the first to get her stick to the ball and pushed it past St. Thomas Aquinas freshman goalkeeper Kaitlyn Gee, who had taken over to start the second half.

Not to be outdone, Burnell followed with her second goal of the game in the 64th minute to make it 6-0. With the ball on the right side of the midfield, junior back Shannon O'Leary (Florence, Mass.) wound and hit a long drive into the circle from about 30 yards out. Positioned near the penalty spot, Burnell got her stick to the low service and redirected it home to notch her second multiple-goal game of the season.

The Ravens created the 7-0 final in the game's dying seconds, in the 70th minute. The first shot by sophomore forward Carly Canavan (Kingston, N.Y.) on the play was stopped, but she corralled her own rebound and dished it off to the left. The ball now clear of the goalkeeper, senior forward Vanessa LeBlanc (Salisbury, Mass.) was left with an empty-net finish for her fourth of the season to cap the scoring.

Sophomore goalkeeper Meaghan Williams (Salem, N.H.) played the first half and picked up the win (7-4) in goal for Franklin Pierce, though she did not face a shot on goal in her 35 minutes of action. Freshman Samantha Geils (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) played the second half and stopped the only shot on her cage to finish off the third shutout of the season for the Ravens.

For St. Thomas Aquinas, Amerling (1-8) played the first half and finished with seven saves against 10 shots on goal in the losing effort. Gee made six saves against 10 shots on goal in the second half, while sophomore back Elizabeth Cazzari added a defensive save for the Spartans.

The Ravens return to the field on Saturday, Oct. 17, when they travel to Adelphi for a Northeast-10 Conference contest. Game time is set for noon at Motamed Field in Garden City, N.Y.

For more information on Franklin Pierce Athletics, please visit the official website of Franklin Pierce Athletics (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu). Also be sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics' official Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/FPUathletics). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce field hockey can do so at the Department of Athletics' online store (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store).