WILLIAMSTOWN, MA — Junior
Shea van den Broek had two goals and an assist while classmate
Emily Batchelor scored twice as the Williams College field hockey team opened its 2021 season with an 8-0 victory over Clark University on Williamson Field Tuesday night.
Williams came out fast and furious and stayed that way through much of the game, scoring twice in each of the four 15-minute quarters. The Ephs outshot the Cougars by a 31-3 margin — including a 20-0 margin in the first half — and had nine penalty corners to the visitors' three.
"From start to finish we really executed the game plan," Ephs' head coach
Alix Barrale said. "We controlled the tempo, played at a fast pace and played a high pressure game. I have to give Clark a lot of credit though, they never quit and their goalie was stealing goals from us, she played so well. But it was a great way for us to start the season, everyone got to play and everyone contributed to the win. This will help prepare us for this weekend when we have back-to-back games with Skidmore and Tufts."
Williams got on the board 4 minutes and 40 seconds into the contest when van den Broek took a pass from junior defender
Lauren McCarey and redirected a shot into the goal. Just ovr a minute later, it was van den Broek setting up Batchelor for the second goal and a 2-0 Williams lead. Williams kept us its constant pressure into the second quarter and 3:38 into the period it paid off when
Faith Stineman set up can den Broek's second goal of the night for a 3-0 lead.
Just 3:28 before the halftime break, sophomore
Jacqui Sandor set up Batchelor's second goal of the game by beating her defender around the right edge of the area, gaining some space to fire a pass into the center of the area where Batchelor ran onto the ball and connected for a shot that gave Williams a 4-0 advantage.
In the second half, sophomore
Payton Ahola tallied two goals while first years
Margot Bernardo and
Kaela Smith each scored once. Smith added an assist as well.
Carson Stephenson played the first half in goal for the Ephs and did not see a shot, while
Gates Tenerowicz played the second half, making two saves over her 30 minutes. In goal for Clark, Grace Sawyer came up with 15 saves in the game.
Williams is at Skidmore Friday for a 4:30 p.m. contest.
