No. 12 West Chester Topples Kutztown On The Road, 14-5

KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Emily Schulze (Harleysville, Pa./North Penn) and Tatum Altman (North Brunswick, N.J./North Brunswick) each registered a hat trick while Sami Barnett (Glenolden, Pa./Interboro) posted four points and four draw controls to lead No. 12 West Chester to a 14-5 victory over host Kutztown inside Andre Reed Stadium Thursday night.
 
West Chester (10-0, 5-0 PSAC) ran its season-opening win streak to 10 games with the victory while remaining atop the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) standings with an unblemished 5-0 mark. Kutztown falls to 5-5 overall and 2-3 in conference play.
 
Maggie Stella (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks East) scored a pair of goals early on that helped stake the visitors to a 5-0 lead 17 minutes into the contest. After Kutztown finally got on the board to halt the run, Barnett netted a pair of tallies three minutes apart to up the advantage to six (7-1) with 5:35 to play in the first half.
 
Drew McKinney (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown West) scored with two minutes left in the half, before Kutztown added another right before the break to make it an 8-2 contest heading into the locker rooms.
 
Kutztown tallied the first goal of the second half to draw within five (8-3), but it would be as close as the hosts would get all evening as West Chester rattled off four of the next five markers, including all three from Schulze, to take command, 12-4.
 
Kutztown put a momentary end to the run. But, Altman scored twice in the last minute of play to close out the scoring at 14-5.
 
Julianne Clemens (Springfield, Pa./Springfield-DELCO) made six saves in the first half to earn her sixth win without a blemish. Nicole Martins (Bethlehem, Pa./Saucon Valley) made six saves in the second half for the Golden Rams. Kutztown's Haley Kline was credited with 14 saves in a losing effort.
 
West Chester put 28 of its 34 shots on the cage while forcing Kutztown into 25 turnovers. Though the Bears won the draw control battle 13-8, the Rams were better at ground balls to the tune of 28-20. Stella caused three turnovers and picked up four draw controls. Cate Zuccarello (Hillsborough, N.J./Hillsborough) and McKinney each led the way with four ground balls. Molly Reinhart (Sinking Springs, Pa./Wilson) had a pair of ground balls and a pair of caused turnovers.
 
West Chester returns home Saturday to face Gannon University in a PSAC contest, which moved up its start time to 11 a.m.