MANCHESTER, N.H. – Saint Anselm forward Stephanie Sutton-Brown finished off a 2-on-1 break with 1:04 left in the first overtime lifting the host Hawks to a 2-1 upset over visiting West Chester on a beautiful sunny day in the New England states.
West Chester (1-1) dropped its first game of the season while Saint Anselm (1-1) picked up its first win of the new year.
Jasmine Miller (Millersville, Pa./Penn Manor) banged home a rebound in front of the net in the ninth minute for her third tally of the season that give the Golden Rams a 1-0 lead, and the guests held onto that advantage until Saint Anselm's Maggie Burchill tied things up in the 25th minute.
That is how it would stand throughout the remainder of regulation.
Saint Anselm controlled the pace of the overtime period by keeping the action in West Chester's end for the majority of the nine minutes. The Golden Rams did produce one chance from Miller with about three minutes remaining. However, Saint Anselm's goalkeeper, Mackenzie McConnell, won the race with Miller to the loose ball and was able to kick it out of danger.
That was a stark contrast to regulation play where West Chester held a 14-5 advantage in shots, including seven on goal, and a 14-6 advantage in penalty corners. The Golden Rams were able to apply pressure on the Hawks throughout. McConnell played well in the cage.
McConnell made six saves on the afternoon, backstopping the Hawks to the win.
Alina Buerger (Koenigs Wusterhausen, Brandenburg, Germany) made one stop for the Golden Rams.
West Chester concludes its three-game New England swing against Northeast-10 opponents on Monday with a 1 p.m. match at Bentley.
