McCarty's Dramatic Game-Winner Lifts Field Hockey to First NE10 Victory

WEST HAVEN, Conn. – Freshman Morgan McCarty(Uxbridge, Mass./Uxbridge) deflected in a pass from classmate Alexis Rider (Delran, N.J./Delran) with 4.4 seconds remaining, as the University of New Haven earned its first Northeast-10 victory in program history over Southern Connecticut State, 2-1 on Tuesday evening at DellaCamera Stadium. The win also came as the first for the Chargers on its home turf, and is the second victory in the last three games for the Blue and Gold. The offense was even for both teams, as each team racked up 12 total shots and eight shots on goal. Freshman Julia Battino (Haddonfield, N.J./Haddonfield Memorial) and freshman Reilly Bialko (Shickshinny, Pa./Northwest Area) led the team with two shots on goal, while sophomore Nina Bazan (Ossining, N.Y./Ossining), freshman Collentine and McCarty each had one. In the cage, sophomore goalkeeper Natalie Shaker (Newtown, Conn./Newtown) tallied seven saves. After each team was unable to find the back of the net in the first half, New Haven had an early second-half goal waved off during the first two minutes to keep things scoreless. Southern Connecticut quickly answered with the first goal of the game, putting a shot home just a minute later. New Haven had the equalizer just two minutes later on a penalty corner inserted by Ashley Higgins (North Hatfield, Mass./Smith Academy), who found Battino for a short pass to Bialko to level the match at one. After 30 minutes of scoreless action, Rider sent a perfect pass through the circle that McCarty deflected in for the game-winner with just over four seconds remaining. New Haven will return to the field on Friday, October 12 for the first of two-straight road games. Game time at the Bentley University Turf Field on Friday is slated for 3:30 pm. For fans who are unable to attend, live stats and video will be available on the Charger Sports Network.