SCRANTON, Pa. – Senior Allie Benadon (Hillsborough, N.J./Hillsborough) scored a pair of goals and junior goalie Clare Maguire (Oreland, Pa./Mount Saint Joseph Academy) registered a shutout in her first career start as The University of Scranton field hockey team (1-0) notched a 2-0 victory over the William Paterson Pioneers (0-1) in the season opener for both teams on Friday night at Weiss Field in Scranton.

This was the first official game for the Royals since a first round NCAA Tournament contest vs. MIT on Nov. 13, 2019.

It is also the second multi-goal game of Benadon's career with the previous two-goal effort coming in an overtime win at Catholic on Sept. 28, 2019.

Benadon opened the scoring with 12:04 left in the second quarter as she took a feed from sophomore Katie Redding (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) following a penalty corner and was able to bury a shot from the far left side of the circle to give the hosts a 1-0 edge. Head coach Colleen Moyer's squad would take the 1-0 lead into the half.

William Paterson had perhaps their best chance of the night with under four minutes to play in the third quarter as the Pioneers earned a penalty corner and Maguire turned away consecutive shots from Abigail Viola and Kristin Freas-Papa to keep it a 1-0 game.

Maguire was making her afore-mentioned first career start in net and tallied five of her six saves on the night in the third quarter to preserve the shutout.

The Royals had a trio of penalty corners in the early stages of the fourth quarter and broke through with an insurance goal with 7:40 to play as Benadon blasted a shot from the top of the circle. Things were academic from there for Scranton as they were able to hold William Paterson without a shot in the final 15 minutes.

Scranton held a 17-9 edge in shots led by six shots from Redding and five from Benadon, while William Paterson held a slight 9-8 advantage in penalty corners.

In goal for the Pioneers, Kourtney Hartzel tallied six saves on the night.

A total of eight players saw their first official collegiate action in the contest for the Royals.

The University of Scranton field hockey team returns to action on Wednesday, Sept. 8 when they host local rival King's (Pa.) at Weiss Field. Start time is slated for 7 p.m.

--ROYALS--