BOX SCORE
BALTIMORE, Md. – Mary Beth Hamilton, Amélia Pereira and Arielle Aikens each found the back of the net on Sunday to help the University of Hartford women's soccer team coast to a 3-0 defeat of the UMBC Retrievers at the UMBC Soccer Stadium in both teams' America East Conference openers. The Hawks remain unbeaten in 2011 with a mark of 8-0-2 (1-0 AE), marking the best start in program history. UMBC remains winless this season and falls to 0-7-1 (0-1 AE).
Finishing with a game-best three points, Hamilton, a graduate student, was deemed the America East Player of the Game for Hartford. Lauren Kadet took home the honors for UMBC after finishing the match with 11 saves.
The Hawks bombarded the Retreivers' defense with seven shot attempts in the opening minutes of the match before notching what proved to be the game-winner. Hamilton converted on her fourth shot attempt to put the Hawks on the scoreboard in the 16th minute. The marker, which was her third this season, was booted off of a bounce and lofted to the upper right corner of the net past Kadet at the 15:18 mark.
Hartford continued to invade UMBC's territory and went on to outshoot the Retrievers, 8-2, over the final 30 minutes of the opening period. Following the halftime intermission, the Hawks netted two more goals to take the 3-0 advantage. Junior Caitlin Alves provided the offense for Hartford's second score on the afternoon when she set up classmate Pereira inside of the box in the 51st minute. After dodging a UMBC defender in front of the net, Pereira punched in her team-leading fifth goal to put her team ahead, 2-0.
The Hawks added an insurance goal and pushed their lead to 3-0 when Aikens launched her third marker this season. Alves again got the offense going for Hartford when she sent a pass from the goal line finding Aikens who rifled a shot and hit the crossbar. Aikens then tracked down her own rebound and beat Kadet with a blast to the left corner to seal the game in the 70th minute.
Hartford combined to hold a commanding 26-10 advantage in the shots column and also dominated the Retrievers in corner kicks by a margin of 9-1. Hawks' keeper Erin Quinlan was forced into seven saves to earn the clean slate, her seventh this season.
The Hawks continue to move through their America East Conference slate when they hit the road again, this time to Vestal, N.Y., to take on the Binghamton Bearcats on Thursday, September 24. First kick between the Hawks and Bearcats is slated for 7:00 p.m.
