Home NYS Hockey Central Utica Women Defeat Cortland

Utica Women Defeat Cortland

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Photo by Janet Schultz

CORTLAND, N.Y. – Junior Morgan Reed (Fort Myers, FL/Cushing Academy) recorded a hat trick to lead the Utica women’s ice hockey team to a 5-2 win over Cortland Saturday afternoon in ECAC West action at Alumni Arena. The Red Dragons fell to 2-6 overall and 1-4 in the conference, while the Pioneers improved to 4-2-1 and 3-2. The same two teams meet Sunday at 3 p.m. in Utica.

Juniors Katie Gili (Brooklyn/New Jersey Rockets) and Niamh O’Connor (Paramus, NJ/New Jersey Rockets) tallied goals for Cortland with juniors Kaitlyn Ryan (Windsor/Adrian College) and Maggie Corbett (Queensbury/Queensbury H.S.) collecting assists. Junior goalie Deanna Meunier (Parsippany, NJ/New Jersey Rockets) made 20 saves.

Sophomores Emily Coope (Phoenix, AZ/Colorado Tigers) and Gabrielle Schnepp (Northville, MI/Belle Tire) each added a goal for Utica. Senior Nicole Kieffer (Rome/Lysander Lightning) contributed three assists, while senior Louise Steele-Norton (Avondale, PA/Millbrook School) chipped in with two assists. Sophomore goalie Keira Goin (Dobbs Ferry/Hotchkiss School) turned aside 19 shots.

After a scorless first period, the Pioneers took a 2-0 lead with goals just 24 seconds apart early in the second period. Reed netted her first at 4:24, and Coope followed with a deflection goal at 4:48. Schnepp made it a 3-0 lead through 40 minutes with a short-handed breakaway goal at 18:34.

Utica upped the lead to 5-0 in the third period on a pair of power-play goals by Reed. She netted her second of the game on a deflection in front at 1:33 and one-timed a shot into the open left side of the goal at 7:27. Gili put Cortland on the scoreboard at 8:18, knocking in a loose puck from the right side while falling to the ice. O’Connor completed the scoring with an unassisted effort, beating Goin on a breakaway at 17:51 after forcing a turnover at Utica’s blue line.

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Janet has been covering women's hockey for over 35 years. Along with a 38 year career in Public Relations and over 40 years photographing sports, she found a passion in women's hockey. Her initial story was on the founding of the Niagara University D1 program, she expanded to collegiate and youth and was active in the founding and promoting of the WNY Girls Varsity Ice Hockey Federation. When Professional Women's Hockey hit the ice she was there, one of the first to release the story in WNY. Along with her husband, Randy, people comment that if there's hockey, the Schultz's are there!