Northwestern
Kent State
Northwestern Outruns Kent State, 4-2
8/30/2004 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
Aug. 30, 2004
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KENT, Ohio -- Playing its second game in as many days, Northwestern scored three goals in the second half to outdistance Kent State, 4-2, Monday afternoon at Dix Stadium in Kent, Ohio.
Candice Cooper (Winnetka, Ill./New Trier) scored a pair of goals and registered an assist while Christine Nannicelli (Walpole, Mass./Walpole) and Amanda Care (Newtown, Pa./Pennsbury) also put the ball in the cage for the Wildcats.
"We played a great game offensively," NU head coach Kelly McCollum said. "We won this game because we scored so many goals."
The Wildcats were able to sustain their attack much better than the Golden Flashes, who could not build offensively against NU's strong hustle play in the back and midfield. Northwestern outshot KSU 19-13, with most of Kent State's opportunities coming in transition.
Cooper opened the scoring at the 26:25 mark on a penalty corner. Ellen Schlafly (St. Louis, Mo./MICDS) and Nannicelli assisted on the goal.
The Golden Flashes equalized three minutes later when Kate Perry collected a bouncing ball in the circle and pushed it into the goal to send the game to the half knotted at 1-1.
In the second half, Northwestern took over. Freshman Care scored her first collegiate goal at the 47 minute mark off a nice centering pass from Schlafly. Nannicelli then put the 'Cats up 3-1 with a deflection of a Cooper penalty corner into the net 10 minutes later.
"We just outran them in the second half the day after an overtime game," McCollum said. "That is such a credit to the hard work the team did in the preseason and during conditioning."
Kent State (1-1) drew within one with 6:20 remaining when they were handed a penalty stroke that Berber Rischen put home, but Cooper scored her second goal of the game 51 seconds later on an assist from Meghan Small (Macungie, Pa./Moravian Academy) to add some insurance to NU's 4-2 victory.
The 2-0 start under McCollum is the Wildcats' first since 1996.
Northwestern returns to action at 1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 3, in its home opener against Ohio University.
