Box Score FAIRFIELD, Conn.— The Fairfield University field hockey team won their third game in a row on Friday night against Sacred Heart.
The Stags posted their first shutout of the season in the 1-0 victory over their cross-town rival Pioneers. Caitlin Bennett played all 70 minutes in cage and made nine saves on the day to post a clean sheet for Fairfield.
Sacred Heart played well on defense as well only allowing six shots and two penalty corners for Fairfield. The Pioneers on the other hand fired off 12 shots in the first half, but were slowed to just three shots in the second stanza. Bennett made eight of her nine saves in the first half to keep the game scoreless heading into the halftime break.
The game winning goal on the night came in the 54th minute. Ruth Smalbraak, the reigning MAAC Rookie of the Week, started the play off when she passed in a penalty corner. Julie de Paeuw rifled a shot on cage that was saved by Mary Altepeter, but de Paeuw gathered her own rebound and flipped it high over Altepeter into the upper corner of the net.
The Stags defense held strong after the goal as they had to defend against a number of shots and penalty corners to preserve the one goal lead.
Leading the way for the Stags was de Paeuw who had half of the six Fairfield shots on the game. Smalbraak, Kaitlyn Taddeo, and Jaclyn Gallagher each added one shot of their own.
With the win, Fairfield now has three MAAC wins heading into their final regular season game. Atop the MAAC standings are Monmouth and Quinnipiac who each post 4-1 conference records. Fairfield sits tied with Siena and Rider who also own 3-2 records in MAAC play.
Only the top four teams qualify for the MAAC Championships which are set to begin on Friday, November 6.
The Stags will look to close out their season with a victory on Sunday at Quinnipiac with the game time scheduled for 12:00 pm.
