Box Score
BOSTON, Mass.—After falling behind 1-0 less than five minutes in, UMass Boston (10-4) scored five unanswered goals to earn their 10th win of the season with a 5-1 victory over Western New England University (8-5-2) Wednesday afternoon at the Clark Athletic Center.
Junior Krista Ledin (Bridgewater, Mass.) followed up her five-goal performance Monday, with her second consecutive hat trick and six Beacons recorded points in the win. The hat trick was the second of the season for Ledin and 10th of her career; the junior forward stands just four goals shy of tying her own program-record for goals in a season.
Senior forward Tayla Andrews (Plymouth, Mass.) added her 11th tally of the year, while Ericka Garufi (Milton, Mass.) scored the most impressive goal of the day for the red-hot Beacons.
Senior Sam Cristoforo (Rockland, Mass.) and freshman KK DaCosta (Brockton, Mass.) each registered two assists, while junior Brittany Castillo (Yarmouth, Mass.) reached double-digit points for the first time in her career (10) with an assist on the final marker.
Goaltenders Kristen Spain (Quincy, Mass.) and Dani Perkins (Murrieta, Calif.) combined to make two saves for the Beacons on three shots. Spain picked up the win to move to 5-1 at home this season, with just three goals allowed in 550 minutes.
Becca Mercieri recorded the lone goal of the day for the Golden Bears, who dropped their second consecutive contest. Karoline Sperber and Bonnie Bousquet picked up the assists on the corner kick tally.
Sophomore keeper Briana Kubik fell to 6-5-2 after making eight saves on 13 shots.
After defeating the Golden Bears by a single goal in each of their first three meetings, UMass Boston made the final minutes a bit less tense in this one, as the Beacons dominated the final 80 minutes.
The Beacons held a 29-6 shot advantage and put 13 shots on goal, compared to just three for Western New England University. UMass Boston also held an 8-1 edge in corner kicks for the contest.
Mercieri put the Golden Bears ahead 1-0 at 3:25 of the first half on a corner kick tally. Less than a minute after UMass Boston appeared to score a goal on a corner kick, Sperber's corner kick was headed by Bousquet right to Mercieri, who flicked a high shot just under the bar for a 1-0 advantage.
UMass Boston responded in the 20th minute, when Ledin sent a deflected shot off a defender. DaCosta started the play by dribbling out of the corner and finding Ledin at the top of the box, before Ledin sent a hard shot off a defender-that deflected into the net just inside the post.
The same duo connected at 29:58 to give the Beacons the lead for good, as DaCosta fed Ledin in the box, and Ledin sent a one-touch toe shot by a diving Kubik.
After a 10-minute break for halftime, Garufi put the game away at 50:31 with an impressive marker. The junior took a pass from Cristoforo and sent a hard liner just under the post to the other side of the goalbox.
The Beacons pushed the lead to 4-1 at 74:12, as Andrews was the recipient of a brilliant play from Cristoforo. Cristoforo dribbled along the goal line, before slipping a pass by Kubik and the defense to a wide-open Andrews who tapped it in.
Ledin finished off her hat trick in the 79th minute, when she took a pass from Castillo and dribbled by Kubik on a one-on-one, before tapping it home for a 5-1 lead.
Western New England will return to Commonwealth Coast Conference play Saturday at 11 a.m. when they travel to Eastern Nazarene College. The Beacons will be on the road as well Saturday, as they travel to Keene State College in a huge Little East Conference showdown at 1 p.m.
