Box Score Bangor, ME – Husson Field Hockey took a big North Atlantic Conference win from Castleton Saturday afternoon at home on senior day, 6-5. Husson scored first but the Spartans came racing back to score three unanswered goals. Husson came alive with just minutes left in the first and never looked back.
Fittingly for senior day, Kara Poirier led the way for the Eagles, scoring two goals with an assist. She earned the helper just under two minutes into the game feeding Mariah Arno for her fifth goal of the season at 1:53 for the 1-0 lead.
Castleton stormed back caging their first less than a minute later as reigning NAC Player of the Week Blake Wardwell scored on the hookup with Mercedes Maltbie to even the game. Kealy Chipman then, less than two minutes later, fed Rachel Preusser for the second Spartan tally. The third unanswered came by way of Chipman once again, who put away a ball in front of the net after Husson keeper Maicee Gustin turned away her first attempt. Now in the 12th minute, Castleton led 3-1.
Both teams went on an 18 minute scoring drought, proving to be the quiet before the storm of Eagle goals. Husson seemed to feed off the intensity and cheering from the entire Eagle Football team who attended the game.
The first goal of which came from Britt Mellor, her second of the year unassisted. Poirier wanted back in the action scoring from Sabrina Vaillancourt just under three minutes later collecting beautifully in front of the cage to tie the game at three going into intermission.
Both teams came out of halftime slow, managing a shot each in the first five minutes but Poirier bucked that trend scoring her 19th of the year. Vaillancourt fed the play once again, giving the Eagles a 4-3 lead just over 45 minutes into the game.
Chrissy Larrabee joined in five minutes later scoring on yet another pretty goal set up by Amanda Stubbs. The Husson lead stood at two goals, 5-3.
Vaillancourt finished the scoring run just over a minute later which ended up being the game winner. Emily Child fed Husson's leading scorer for her 20th goal of the year, capping a streak of five unanswered goals this time in favor of the Eagles.
The Spartans most certainly would not give up scoring their fourth goal of the contest in the 58th minute. Preusser caged her second goal of the afternoon unassisted to close the gap to two.
Tension was high during the final ten minutes with both teams playing with different strategies. Castleton played spirited hockey in the closing minutes reeling off five shots and earning three penalty corners. The Spartans final goal came a few moments too late as Wardwell scored as time expired.
Head coach Jen Johnstone said of the win: "We played as one team today led by our senior captain Kara Poirier. It was our goal since preseason to find our way to first place in the conference. Now, all of the hard work has paid off and we can move on to even greater for this season."
Husson and Castleton both sit atop the NAC with an 8-1 conference record and await playoff opponents for Saturday the 27th.
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