Freshman Charlia Warner (pictured) scored two goals in her college debut, including the game winner with 3:04 remaining, to lead the Hofstra Pride to a 3-1 victory over the Maine Black Bears in the Hofstra Pride Invitational at James M. Shuart Stadium Saturday afternoon. The Pride remain undefeated, improving to 3-0 on the season. Maine fell to 2-2 on the season.
The Pride jumped out to a 1-0 lead just 3:10 into the contest when Warner, a member of the Barbados National Field Hockey Team, took a pass on the left side of the goal from junior Katherine Kotowski and beat Maine goalie Rebecca Giroux. The Black Bears tied the game with 3:45 remaining in the first half as freshman Kim MacDonald fed senior Kasey Spencer who beat Pride goalie Jessica Cowperthwait.
Maine had several excellent chances to break the deadlock in the second half but were thwarted by outstanding defensive efforts. Hofstra defender Sekayi Liburd made a diving defensive save of a shot by Kristen Healy to stop a potential tie-breaker. Several minutes later. Pride goalie Jessica Cowperthwait made two point-blank saves to stop another threat.
But Warner broke the tie when sophomore defender Shannon Alexander sent a pass from the left side across the goal area to the waiting freshman. Warner redirected the pass into the goal for a 2-1 lead. The Pride added an insurance goal after Maine replaced the goalie with a kicking-back. Sophomore forward Pemba Ramdoo stole a pass in the Black Bears zone and fired a shot into the goal to seal the victory.
Cowperthwait recorded two saves to post her third victory of the season. Giroux, who faced 17 Hofstra shots, recorded eight saves.
In the second game, the Columbia University Lions (1-0) roared back from a 2-0 halftime deficit to post a thrilling 3-2 victory over the Hawks of Monmouth University (0-3). Senior Diana Day's second goal of the game with 6:52 to play in the second half broke the 2-2 deadlock and gave the Lions the victory.
Senior Allie Flaig and junior Maeve Hagen gave Monmouth a 2-0 lead but the Lions came back in the second period. Day scored her first 7:36 into the half and junior Courtney Robinson tied the game with an unassisted goal 12 minutes later setting up Day's heroics.
The Pride will face Monmouth University on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. in its second game of the Hofstra Pride Invitational. Columbia will square off against Maine at 2 p.m.
