SALEM — Sophomore Marissa Penge (Liverpool, NY) scored twice as Salem State defeated the Becker Hawks 5-2 at Alumni Field on Tuesday afternoon in a matinee non-conference game. The Vikings claim their first win of the season and are now 1-3 while the Hawks fall to 0-6.
Junior Jennifer Jordan (Saugus, MA) netted the first goal for the Vikings at the 21:16 mark off an assist from
sophomore Julia Klein (Liverpool, NY) after a corner attempt by the Vikings. Just a minute and forty seconds later, Penge scored her first goal of the game unassisted, putting the Vikings up 2-0 at the 27:30 mark.
Becker responded with a goal by junior Amy Grenier (Westminster, Mass.) to cut the lead in half with sophomore Jocelyn Lebel (Grafton, MA) assisting. The Vikings increased their lead to 3-1 right before halftime as freshman Kaitlynn Palmer (Verona, NY) scored at the 31 minute mark, with freshman Krista Forbes (Guilderland, NY) assisting.
Sophomore Courtney Smith (Peabody, MA) started off the second half with an unassisted goal before Penge scored her second goal of the game at the 53:29 mark to extend the Vikings lead to 5-1. At 59:04, Grenier capped the scoring with her second of the game for Becker to make the final 5-2 in favor of Salem State.
Elysabeth Jeffries (Lisbon Falls, Maine) faced off against junior Carolyn Woodin (Arlington, Mass.) in goal. Woodin made two saves and had one goal against in the win. Playing all 70 minutes, Jeffries made seven saves on 12 shots on goal for the Hawks. Salem native Victoria Kako in her first season with SSU was subbed in for Woodin near the 41st minute and the freshman made seven saves while allowing one goal.
Salem State held a slight advantage in shots on goal over Becker 12-11. The Vikings also had an advantage over the Hawks in corners, 8-5.
Little East rival Worcester State will host Salem State in Worcester on September 16 at 7PM. Becker College will go on the road again against Colby-Sawyer on the 17th at 1PM.
