WALTHAM, Mass. – The defending NE10 champions Bentley University began their title defense with a 17-2 victory over American International on Saturday afternoon.

Sophomore Caroline Affolter (Newburyport, Mass./Newburyport) led the attack with four goals and sophomore transfer Maeve Johnson (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury) had a hat trick in her first game in a Bentley uniform.

Junior goalkeeper Maya Rose (East Lyme, Conn./East Lyme) made six saves to earn her first career win in her first start.

The Falcons led 7-0 after the first quarter, led by a three-goal spurt in the final 1:39 of the quarter. Courtney Dermody (Bedford, N.H./Bedford), Cara McCarthy (Salem, N.H./Central Catholic) and Stephanie McAuliffe (Natick, Mass./Natick) had goals during the run.

Bentley extended its lead to 10-0 with three goals early in the 2^nd quarter before AIC got on the board. Affolter, Kenzie Lupton (Canandaigua, N.Y./Canandaigua) and Johnson had those goals.

An AIC goal by Anevay Rice with 1:59 remaining in the first half was the last goal the Yellow Jackets scored to make it an 11-2 game. Bentley outscored them 4-0 in the 3^rd quarter and 2-0 in the 4^th quarter.

Seniors Christine Fish (Slingerlands, N.Y./Guilderland) and Ashlee Wargo (Madison, Conn./Daniel Hand) had the goals in the 4^th quarter.

Bentley will look to make it a 2-0 start to the season when they host Molloy on Wednesday.