The St. Thomas Aquinas College Field Hockey team opened their 2019 regular season schedule with a 2-1 victory at Frostburg State University in Maryland on Thursday afternoon

In the first quarter action, the Spartans stormed out to an early 1-0 lead, just 2:50 into the contest, as Briannah Thorne tallied her first goal of the season on a terrific pass by Meghan McCarren. However, just two minutes later, Logan Gladden tied things up for the home team Bobcats at one goal apiece with the assist going to teammate Gabby Rachuba. Back and forth chances for both team with no additional scoring was how the quarter ended, with the score tied at one.

Second quarter play saw limited chances for both squads, however the teams each picked up a number of fouls, as the level of competitive edge picked up for both Frostburg State and St. Thomas Aquinas. No scoring in the stanza sent the teams to their respective sidelines with the score all knotted up at one goal apiece.

Once again tight play between the Spartans and Bobcats was the theme of the third quarter, until Lotte Strijbos picked up what would be the game-winning goal with Meghan McCarren picking up her second helper of the day at 6:34 to make it a 2-1 STAC lead. That would be all of the scoring for the third and St. Thomas Aquinas would head into the final quarter with a one goal lead.

The Fourth and final quarter of play saw the Spartans successfully defend a number of quality chances by the Frostburg State offense, including numerous game saving stops by goalie Suzanne Clarke to preserve the narrow 2-1 victory.

Spartan keeper Suzanne Clarke (W, 1-0) made 4 stops on the day, while her counterpart in the Frostburg State goal, Sierra Smizer (L, 0-1) also made 4 saves.

Frostburg State held slight 12-10 shots advantage for the game, with each team receiving 6 penalty corners.

St. Thomas Aquinas College (1-0) next heads to Keystone College in Pennsylvania for an 11am contest on Saturday, September 7th.