Gulls Open Home Season with 5-1 Victory over Maine-Farmington

BEVERLY, Mass. – In their first home game since winning the 2011 Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) field hockey championship, the Endicott Gulls played a solid 70 minute contest and soared to a 5-2 win over University of Maine-Farmington on Sunday afternoon.

Endicott senior forward Hannah Thornberg (Oakland, Maine) scored twice, including the eventual game-winner less than three minutes into the game. Thornberg now has four goals on the year after scoring twice in each of Endicott's wins this weekend.

Thornberg knocked the ball out of the air and past Farmington goalie Curran Brierly (East Hampton, N.Y.) to give Endicott a 1-0 lead after Brierly made a stop on a point-blank effort by senior Melissa Enright (York Beach, Maine).

Four different players scored for Endicott a day after the Gulls had five contributors in an 8-1 win over Colby-Sawyer. "The balanced scoring from our attack is something that we've been stressing a lot in practice," said head coach Jodi Cipolla, who celebrated her 32^nd birthday on Sunday. "It was great to see contributions from all over the field during the two games this weekend."

Sunday, Endicott outshot their opponents 15-4, including 11-2 in the first half and also dominated on penalty corner chances in the first half (10-1) and in the game (15-2).

The Gulls doubled their advantage 17 minutes in on a laser shot slammed home by sophomore Alyssa Clark (Gorham, Me.). The goal came off of a penalty corner delivered by Thornberg, who picked up an assist, along with Meghan Leary (Hampton Falls, N.H.), who set the ball up for Clark's blast.

Endicott led 3-0 at the break thanks to another goal by Thornberg, and senior Cassie DeSimone (Reading, Mass.) collected her first goal of the year in the 54^th minute to extend the lead to four goals. Junior Stacie Teevens (Westborough, Mass.) picked up the assist on DeSimone's goal, her first point of 2012.

Enright added a penalty stroke in the 62^nd minute and is tied with Thornberg for the team lead in goals.

Endicott goalies Taylor Teixeira (Exeter, N.H.) and Lizetta Solarik (Carmel, N.Y.) each played a half and combined to make two stops to earn the victory.

Senior Lily Barry (Hermon, Maine) was able to score in the 65^th minute for Maine-Farmington to end Endicott's hopes of a shutout.

Brierly made seven saves in the first half and then gave way to Felisha Taylor (Chelsea, Maine), who played the entire second half and made two stops.

Endicott's improves their record to 2-1. Their homestand continues with a 7:00 pm game on Wednesday against UMass Dartmouth.

The Beavers, playing their first game of the year, fall to 0-1. They will play their home opener Wednesday at 4:00 pm  when they host the University of Southern Maine.