Box Score COLCHESTER, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College field hockey team tallied four first-half goals en route to a 7-1 win against Franklin Pierce University during non-conference play at Duffy Field on Saturday. The Purple Knights improve to 4-2 behind their highest offensive output since netting seven on Sept. 2, 2009, while the Ravens are 2-3.
Senior Cassaundra Davis (Newburyport, Mass./Newburyport) registered a career-high seven points off three goals and one assist, improving her career goal total to 25 and passing Marsha Spellacy '93 (24) for 10th in program history. She is one goal behind Kathy O'Neil '81 for ninth. The hat trick was the fourth of Davis' career.
Senior Samantha Burns (North Creek, N.Y./Johnsburg Central) added one goal and one assist, and junior Mackenzie Hudson (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) and first-years Jenna Deschaine (Claremont, N.H./Stevens) and Marjolein Kerstjens (Bilthoven, The Netherlands/Werkplaats Kindergemeenschap) also recorded goals for Saint Michael's. Senior goalkeeper Jackie Chisholm (New Braintree, Mass./Quabbin Regional) made seven saves for the win, and classmate Shannon Rice (West River, Md./Elizabeth Seton) recorded her 13th career defensive save, leaving her one shy of Ashley Webb's '07 program mark.
Junior Sara Michaels (Goshen, Conn./Wamogo Regional) scored for Franklin Pierce, while first-year Meaghan Williams (Salem, N.H./Salem) had four stops.
Saint Michael's netted the game's first goal at 1:07 when Hudson knocked in a rebound to the right post for her first score of the season, and ultimately reeled off the first four goals in 19:42, including two by Davis. On the first Davis goal, she and Burns raced up the field on a breakaway and Burns passed to Davis, who then fired a shot to the top of the net at 3:53. Davis found the back of the net again when she was on the receiving end of junior Morgan Mazanec's (Shelburne, Mass./Mohawk Trail Regional) centering pass at 15:06. Kerstjens then made the game a 4-0 affair just 4:36 later when she buried a rebound off Williams' right leg pad. Franklin Pierce broke up the shutout when Michaels tallied a goal off a rebound at 33:40 following Rice's defensive save.
The second half saw similar offensive pressure from the Purple Knights, as they tucked away three goals in a 9:44 span. Burns opened the second stanza scoring at 49:45 when she and Davis crashed the net on an odd-man rush, and Davis knocked the ball to Burns, who notched her second goal of the season. The Deschaine sisters then teamed up 2:16 later as Jenna was the beneficiary of multiple passes off a Saint Michael's penalty corner, the last of which came from junior Megan Deschaine (Claremont, N.H./Stevens). The Purple and Gold scored its final goal at 59:29 when sophomore Abby Dusha (Greenwich, N.Y./Greenwich Central School) passed to the center, allowing Davis to deposit her third tally of the game.
The Purple and Gold wraps up its non-conference schedule on Tuesday when it travels to Bentley University for a 6 p.m. start.