SMITHFIELD, R.I. (September 8, 2024) – Two road games this weekend for the Sacred Heart University field hockey team, and two wins. Two wins, and a pair of game-winning goals for Amelia Pellegrini (Wallingford, Pa.). The junior midfielder finished off a rebound on a 33^rd-minute corner play on Sunday, to break a 1-1 tie and lift the Pios to a 2-0 non-conference victory over Bryant at Cowen Field.
 
With the victory, SHU (2-2) wound up with a split of a run of four straight road games to open the season. The Pios will finally play at home on Friday night against Hofstra, at 7 p.m. at Johnson Field in New Haven.
 
On Sunday, the first quarter went scoreless, before the Pioneers struck nearly midway through the second quarter. Working from the left side of the circle in the 22^nd minute, Celia Benson (Scituate, Mass.) put a ball towards the cage. The first-year midfielder would wind up with her first collegiate goal on the play, as the Bryant defense managed to redirect the shot into its own net.
 
The Bulldogs trailed going into halftime, but drew level just 65 seconds into the third quarter, on a penalty corner in the 32^nd minute. Bryant (1-3) executed a give-and-go on the left side of the circle, as Eva Boogers inserted short to Filou Verhoeven and then cut to the left post. Verhoeven held for a beat and then returned the ball to Boogers, who brushed home her own first collegiate goal from in front of the left post.
 
SHU needed just 66 seconds to respond and struck for the game-winner on a corner play of its own in the 33^rd minute. Pellegrini inserted to the top of the circle for Emma Brayford (Breiningsville, Pa.), who wound and fired from there. Brayford's shot rang off the right post and the bouncing ball ricocheted into the left side of the circle. Megan Albert (Lansdale, Pa.) was able to time things up and knock the ball out of midair, propelling it ahead to Pellegrini, who had made her way to the left post. Pellegrini hammered home her second goal in as many games, to put the Pios in front to stay.
 
It was the second game-winning goal of the weekend for Pellegrini. She now has three career goals, all of them game-winners.
 
From there, Sacred Heart saw the game out with relative ease. Samantha Maresca (Mamaroneck, N.Y.) was tested four times in a span of three minutes after the Pellegrini goal, but was able to turn them all aside. She did not face another shot on goal over the final 24 minutes of the contest. Maresca (2-2) finished with seven saves against eight shots.
 
Sara DeSousa (1-2) made four saves against six shots over 36:46 and suffered the loss in the Bryant net. Maud van Lierop took over for the final 19:19 and stopped the only shot she faced.