WESTFIELD, Mass. – Senior attacker Emma Cretella (Cheshire, Conn.) led all players with six goals as Westfield State opened the 2024 regular season by defeating Western New England 17-12 in a non-conference game from Springfield, Mass. on Wednesday evening.

The Owls scored nine of the first ten goals in the game, beginning with Natalie DeMaio (Westwood, Mass.) who circled around the Golden Bears net before firing a shot high and past the stick of Faith Graveline (North Attleboro, Mass.) just 1:47 into the game.

Cretella followed with the next two goals for Westfield, beating a pair of defenders to the front of the net for her first of the game. After a Golden Bears tally by Ally Ferraro (Hamden, Conn.), Mollie Pacheco (Tolland, Conn.) dished a pass to Cretella just outside the twenty where she cut past her nearest defender and launched a shot through tight quarters into the net to extend the Owls lead to two goals.

With the Owls up a player, Megan Bailey (Quincy, Mass.) collected a pass from Emma Prattson (Tolland, Conn.) to convert her first of three goals on the afternoon to end the period with the Owls ahead, 4-1.

Westfield blitzed Western New England to begin the second quarter, scoring five goals within a span of six minutes to extend the lead to eight goals, capped off by a player-up marker from Mercedes Rozzi (South Burlington, Vt.) followed by a goal from Kylie Buchanan (Westfield, Mass.), a graduate transfer who scored a team-high 48 goals for Western New England last season.

The Owls went into the half leading 10-2 where the two teams traded goals through the opening stages of the third quarter with Westfield leading 12-5 with Cretella scoring both goals. Western New England cut the deficit to six goals before Buchanan and Cretella tacked on goals in the closing minutes of the third quarter.

Leading by eight goals heading into the final frame, the Owls put the game out of reach in the first four minutes with Buchanan depositing her fourth of the contest, then a free position goal from Pacheco marked her first collegiate goal to stretch the Westfield advantage to ten goals.

Sydney Smith (Dalton, Mass.) registered five saves to pick up the victory. Prattson, who led the Owls with 37 assists last season, handed out three helpers during the game.

Ferraro, Mia Celentano (Hamden, Conn.) and Emmy Burns (Billerica, Mass.) each scored three goals for the Golden Bears.

The Owls forced 30 turnovers and outshot the Golden Bears 35-25 in the game, and were particularly effective in transitioning from defense to offense as they were successful in 17 of 19 clearing attempts.

Westfield State (1-0) will return home to host Skidmore in the 2024 home opener on Thursday at 5:00 P.M. from Alumni Field in Westfield, Mass. for their next game.