Big 2nd Half Pushes No. 10 New Haven Past Bentley 18-11
| Final | 1 | 2 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Bentley (8-8, 7-6 NE10) | 8 | 3 | 11 |
|
New Haven (13-3, 11-2 NE10) | 9 | 9 | 18 |
WEST HAVEN, Conn. – No. 10 ranked New Haven had a big 2nd half scoring advantage, and turned a one goal game at halftime into an 18-11 victory over Bentley in the regular season finale for both teams on Saturday afternoon.
The Falcons' four game winning streak was snapped, and they end the regular season with an overall record of 8-8, and 7-6 in Northeast-10 games. They will be the No. 7 seed in the Northeast-10 Championship, and will play the No. 2 seed Adelphi in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Four first half goals by senior attacker Hannah Lindgren (Southborough, Mass./Algonquin), and two by senior Ellie Shuman (Nashua, N.H./Nashua North), had Bentley within 9-8 of the Chargers at halftime.
The Falcons led 6-3 just before the midway point of the first half on the back of a 3-0 run that saw a goal by sophomore MaryKate Staines (Gaithersburg, Md./Damascus), her 12th of the season, come in between two goals by Lindgren. But after Lindgren's unassisted goal at 16:42 gave Bentley the 6-3 lead, the Chargers responded with a 5-0 run that took about six minutes to take an 8-6 lead.
A goal by Falcons junior Kathleen Gillespie (Topsfield, Mass./Masconomet) at 4:20 broke the run, and Lindgren added another unassisted goal at 1:51 to tie the game 8-8, before New Haven scored the final goal of the half to lead 9-8 at the break.
New Haven steadily built its lead over the first 15 minutes of the 2nd half with five goals, but Bentley stayed in it with three of its own, from senior Ciara Morley (Irvington, N.Y/Irvington), Lindgren and Shuman, which made it a 14-11 game with 14:05 remaining.
However, that was Bentley's final goal of the afternoon. New Haven attacker Caitlin O'Brien scored two of her game high six goals over the final 9:18 to help the Chargers pull away.
Lindgren scored five goals in a game for the third game in a row, and finished the regular season with 40 goals overall. Shuman's hat trick was her fourth game of the year with at least four goals.
Bentley and Adelphi will meet in the playoffs on Wednesday for the first time ever.