Amherst, MA - For the third time this season, the Lady Mustangs had a game less than 24-hours after their previous one. After returning from their away game at Unity College on Friday night, Central Maine hit the road again early Saturday morning heading to Amherst, Massachusetts for their second game of the season against Hampshire College in a non-conference matchup. Following the heartbreaking loss in the final two minutes of a very well-played game the night before, the Mustangs were looking to end their losing streak with another solid performance against Hampshire.
Similar to their previous matchup a few weeks ago, Central Maine came out firing on all cylinders with a high pressure attack but Hampshire was not going to yield that easily and mounted an attack of their own resulting in a game that followed the pattern of the one before. It was a relatively even contest until Samantha Belardo (Russell, MA) won a ball from the Hampshire defense and took it to goal to put the Mustangs up 1-0 at the 33:00 minute mark. Four minutes later Keara Hunter (Wiscassett, ME) put a long ball through the middle to Megan Duval (Jay, ME), who quickly found Belardo who netted her second goal of the game to send Central Maine into half-time with a 2-0 lead.
The second half saw a revitalized Hampshire squad begin to pressure the Mustang net until Central Maine was able to gain control again and continue their attack. With five minutes left in the game, Belardo earned the hat trick with her third goal of the game off a pass from Rachel Dunn (Marshfield, MA) to give Central Maine a 3-0 win in front of a large contingent of Massachusetts and Connecticut fans who came out to see their favorite Mustangs play.
Skyler Henry (Waterford, CT) made 14 saves to earn the win for the Mustangs. Central Maine is back in action at home on Wednesday, October 10 in a 2pm non-conference game against University of Maine Machias.
