BOX SCORE
West Hartford, Conn. – Junior striker Caitlin Alves had a touch on all three of the Hawks goals, completing her first collegiate multi-goal game and lifting the Hawks to a 3-0 shutout over the Stony Brook Seawolves on Thursday night at Al-Marzook Field at Alumni Stadium. Fifth-year Hawk Mary Beth Hamilton provided her third game-winning goal of the year in the 23rd minute, helping her squad improve to 11-0-2 on the season and a perfect 4-0 in league action.
Alves finished the match with five points overall, a career high, and was named the Hawks America East Player of the Game. Hawks keeper Erin Quinlan collected her 10th shutout of the season with six total saves, a pair in the first half and four in the second half. The Hawks would finish the match with a 17-7 advantage in the shots column, while the teams were knotted at four in corner kicks.
Hamilton's goal in the 23rd minute began with a touch from Alves, who dribbled into the box from the right side of the goal where she sent a perfectly placed pass into the middle, just inside the 12-yard marker. Hamilton gathered the ball, worked around a defender and scored to the lower left corner beyond the reach of Stony Brook keeper Chelsea Morales.
Stony Brook (3-9-1 overall, 1-2-1 America East) came out of that score to put a shot on goal for the first time in the game in the 25th minute when Caitlin Pfeiffer took a long attempt from outside the 18-yard box which Quinlan easily collapsed on for her first save of the game. The Wildcats would manage just two shots in the first 45 minutes with all coming from a distance.
The Hawks had an impressive string of shots in the 33rd minute all beginning with a long shot from Alves which ricocheted off of top left 90-degree corner between the post and crossbar. Her classmate Amélia Pereira gathered the rebound and put a cleat to it, but Morales was able to make a save but not control the ball, which Pereira again tracked down and sent a blast towards the low right corner of the net but found the post.
Coming out of the halftime break, the Seawolves would be the first offense to test the keepers with Dana Adamkiewicz taking a shot from about six-yards off the line through traffic that Quinlan made a spectacular glove save to her left, which Shealagh Begley collected and cleared well out of danger.
Just 41 seconds later the Hawks would rebound from that attempt with an insurance goal off the cleat of Alves, her sixth of the season which, at the time, tied Pereira for the team lead. Alves would pull down a pass over the midfield and defense of Stony Brook which came forward from her classmate Caroline Dixon. Alves worked through two defenders and sent a shot from about 16 yards out from right to left sneaking just inside the lower left corner.
Alves then extended her career-high of goals in a single season to seven, also extending the Hawks cushion over the Seawolves to 3-0 with just over 18 minutes remaining. Alves worked with freshman Chanel Johnson for the third notch on the scoreboard. The assist for the rookie is the second-straight game she has recorded a helper. With the ball bouncing around deep inside the box, Johnson put a head to it pushing over to Alves who took a chip shot into the lower right corner from under two yards off the line.
The Hawks will return to action a week from today when they welcome Maine into West Hartford on October 13. The Hawks and Black Bears will tangle at 6:00 p.m. in what is the second-to-last home game in the regular season.
