BRUNSWICK — Bowdoin College received goals from five different scorers on its way to a 7-1 victory over the University of Maine at Farmington in field hockey play at Ryan Field on Wednesday evening.
The Polar Bears improved to 8-1 with a pair of goals from Emma Stevens and Claudia Kriz, while Elizabeth Growney, Jamie Margiotta and Abby Bashaw each tallied goals in the win.
“It was a good for us today,” Bowdoin coach Nicky Pearson said. “We were able to work a lot of players in and work on our game skills.”
Bowdoin used precise passing on its home turf in a fast-paced start. A little over four minutes into the contest, a Stevens shot bounced off UMF keeper Grace DiMarco into the air and Bashaw batted it in for the game’s first score.
Following an Elizabeth Growney goal, Emma Stevens found the back of the cage twice a little more than two minutes apart to push the lead to 4-0. Stevens was the beneficiary of a couple of great passes, with assists from Kara Finnerty and Elizabeth Bennewitz.
“Passing is our main focus in practice,” Stevens said. “Two-touch hockey, we see our best results when we do that.”
Pearson echoed those comments in regards to the team’s passing.
“We have been working on each element of our corners and being able to execute that,” the Bowdoin coach said. “Having some variety so we’re not predictable.”
Stevens’ two goals pushed her team-leading total to 14 through nine games.
“She’s having a terrific season. She reads the play well and makes good contact with the ball,” Pearson said. “I’m really happy for her, she’s having a great season.”
“It’s been good, we’ve had a lot of good connections,” Stevens said. “We all work together to set each other up as it’s a big team effort.”
The Polar Bears closed out the half with a Margiotta goal off a Manveer Sandhu helper. Then Margiotta set up Kriz for the sixth goal of the game.
Bowdoin outshot the Beavers 24-1 in the opening half, while holding a 5-1 advantage in penalty corners. DiMarco made 17 of her 18 saves in the opening half, and her counterpart Eva Verzani of Bowdoin turned away the one shot she faced in the first 35 minutes.
Playing on turf was something new for UMF this season.
“This is the first time we’ve played on the carpet turf all year. Our home field is one of the few grass fields still around,” UMF coach Cyndi Pratt said. “It’s a little bit tougher for us to adjust, but we know it coming in that it’s going to be this way. So we practice on indoor surfaces to prepare us.”
Kriz tallied a goal about 20 minutes into the frame, off a pass from Laura Cooper for Bowdoin’s seventh goal.
The Polar Bears nearly received their eighth score with eight minutes left when Cooper broke away from the pack and faced DiMarco with a one-on-one opportunity. But Cooper was denied when DiMarco stepped out and met her in front to knock the ball away.
“I think our goalkeeper had a good second half, especially on that one-on-one attempt. I think this game will help her confidence with those nice saves she had,” Pratt said.
The Beavers (1-7) put a goal on the scoreboard with six minutes remaining. Taking the ball off a penalty corner from Torrie Nightingale, former Leavitt player Emma Martineau lofted a shot that went up and over Bowdoin keeper Maddie Ferrucci for the score.
“We’ve been trying that almost every game and it was nice to finally put one in the back of the net,” Martineau said. “I have been shooting it over the net so I told myself ‘a little less,’ and it was nice to get it in.”
Despite the 7-1 final, Pratt knows her team will learn from this.
“We can compete, they just need to believe in themselves. We’re still trying to find things to build their confidence,” Pratt said. “This will be the best team we play all year, so we just need to remember we can play up to their level and not settle. Hopefully this will be a starting point for us to jump-start our season.”
Martineau agreed.
“We played 1-1 in the second half and I think we can take that and hopefully push ourselves as we have a big weekend coming up,” she said.
UMF travels to Elms College ( 3 p.m.) on Saturday and Colby-Sawyer (noon) on Sunday.
Bowdoin hosts Trinity on Saturday at 11 a.m. before traveling north to Waterville to take on Colby on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
