Colchester, Vt. - The St. Thomas Aquinas College Field Hockey team extended its current winning streak to five games by edging Saint Michael's College, 2-1 on Saturday afternoon at Duffy Field.
STAC improves to 8-6 overall and 6-3 within the NE10, while Saint Michael's falls to 3-10 and 3-6.
Sofia Corominas Cuen and Nicola Van Vuuren tallied the goals for the Spartans, while Jessie Hohenstein recorded her seventh win of the season, making five stops in the match.
The visitors in maroon and gold opened the scoring in the first quarter, as Sofia Corominas Cuen took a penalty corner entry from Jasmijn Van Drunen and fired a shot from the edge of the circle past Purple Knights keeper Riley O'Connor to make it 1-0.
No further scoring took place in the first half, as St. Thomas Aquinas put up zeros on the scoreboard and in the statistics, not allowing a shot or penalty corner through 30 minutes of action to maintain the one-goal advantage.
Following the break, Saint Michael's was finally able to earn several scoring opportunities. However, they would either be blocked by the strong Spartan defense or stopped by keeper Jessie Hohenstein, as STAC continued to blank the Purple Knights through three quarters of play.
In the final quarter, the hosts would once again put up a valient attempt to tie the score, and they would, as Addy Fenton capitalized on a penalty stroke in the 49th minute of the match to even the score at 1-1.
A little over three minutes later, St. Thomas Aquinas broke the tie when a Katelyn Cerrato cross-field pass was tapped in by Nicola Van Vuuren to give the Spartans the 2-1 advantage.
The final eight plus minutes would be as tense as advertised, but the battle-tested STAC defense would turn back Saint Michaels' attempts to even the score and run out the clock to take the all important conference victory.
STAC Highlights and Game Notes
- Nicola Van Vuuren's goal in the match is her team-leading eighth on the season for the Spartans.
- Sofia Corominas Cuen tallied her third goal of the season on Saturday afternoon.
- Jessie Hohenstein (W, 7-4) turned away five of six shots faced.
- St. Thomas Aquinas outshot Saint Michael's 21-9, while the Spartans earned an 8-6 advantage in penalty corners.
- STAC's 21 total shots in the contest came via Van Vuuren (5), Kelly Johnson (5) Jasmijn Van Drunen (4), Erin Bacalles (2), Corominas Cuen (2), Adriana Alfisi (1), Katelyn Cerrato (1) and Floortje Beune (1).
Up Next
St. Thomas Aquinas College continues its three-game road stand at Adelphi University on Wednesday, November 2 (4:00 p.m.).