WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State senior Emma Cretella (Cheshire, Conn.) tallied six goals and two assists to help guide the Owls to an 18-10 win over Framingham State in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season finale on Saturday afternoon.
With the victory, the Owls clinch the 2023 regular season title and the top overall seed in the MASCAC tournament. Westfield owns a nine-game winning streak, and for the second straight year, the Owls conclude the regular season with a perfect 7-0 conference record, moving to 12-5 overall. The Rams drop to 10-7 on the year and 5-2 in MASCAC action.
Victoria Paras (Medford, Mass.) got the Owls on the board less than a minute into the game, scoring on a feed from Cretella. Westfield then tacked on three unanswered goals with Cassidy Connolly (Woburn, Mass.) registering a pair of goals to extend the Owls lead to 4-0.
After Regan Fein (North Attleboro, Mass.) got the Rams on the scoreboard, the Owls responded with three straight goals, two of which came off of free position tallies from Cretella and Cassidy Harvey (Niskayuna, N.Y.) to open up a 7-1 advantage.
Framingham managed to cut the Owls lead to four goals at the start of the second quarter, but the Owls dominated the closing minutes of the first half by scoring six goals in a span of six minutes of game action. Paras kicked off the scoring spurt, then Connolly and Natalie DeMaio (Westwood, Mass.) potted goals to drive the lead back up to seven. Cretella capped the half with a pair of goals with the second score coming with the Owls playing a player down with 11 seconds left in the period.
Westfield entered halftime with a 13-5 lead and held the Rams scoreless in the third quarter. Cretella netted her fifth and sixth goals on the afternoon before Nicole Rinkus (Pembroke, Mass.) fired home her 100th career goal to punctuate the period and put the game well out of reach.
Kara Banagan (Niskayuna, N.Y.) racked up 14 saves and recorded her sixth win of the season. Alexis Burleigh (Vernon, Conn.) took the loss with Isabella DiMare (Wakefield, Mass.) relieving her teammate to collect six saves.
The six goals scored from Cretella tied a season high. Connolly, Harvey, DeMaio, and Paras each collected multi-goal efforts as well.
Rachel Erickson (Dunstable, Mass.) led the Rams with four goals with Fein and Hannah Guerin (Cumberland, R.I.) adding two goals apiece.
Westfield State will begin their quest for a fifth MASCAC championship in their last six seasons as the Owls open the MASCAC postseason on Thursday, May 4 from Alumni Field in Westfield, Mass. at 7:00 P.M. with the opponent still to be determined.