WORCESTER – Seniors Jena Mazzucco (Danbury, CA) and Hope Shevchuk (Burlington, CT) both registered a pair of goals following penalty corners as host WPI defeated Johnson & Wales 4-1 in a non-conference field hockey contest played on Tuesday evening.  With the victory, the Engineers move to 4-3 on the season while the Wildcats slip to 3-4 overall. 

Mazzucco lit the scoreboard for the Crimson and Gray just 1:26 into the game when she knocked home a diagonal feed from Shannon Hynes (Auburn, MA) following the first corner of the night.  Shevchuk made it 2-0 by netting a goal off a crazy sequence just over 10 minutes into play.  Carly Cidado's (Easton, MA) original shot was kept out of the goal by a defensive save by Gabriella Catania (West Milford, NJ) before Allie Buckley (Worcester, MA) dumped off a pass to Shevchuk, who shot to the bottom left. 

Johnson & Wales would then turn on the pressure with three straight shots and eventually dent the scoring column nearly seven minutes later when Casey Chodkowski (Somerset, MA) dribbled towards the goal from the corner and passed into the middle to Madeline Larson (Catonsville, MD), who went to the bottom left for her first tally of season.  WPI got the goal back at 21:12 when Amanda Richards (Wilmington, MA) dribbled into the box and found an open Mazzucco.  The senior went to the bottom right for her second of the night and fourth of the season. 

The hosts received some insurance just 5:05 into the second half directly off a penalty corner.  Izzy Garver's (Owls Head, ME) insertion and Mazzucco's stick-stop step up a blast from Shevchuk for the senior's four goal of the season.   The Wildcats prevented the advantage from widening when Larson made a defensive save with just under 12 minutes remaining.  

Karen Noble (Mariaville, ME) went the first 50:15 in between the pipes for WPI, making four saves en route to picking up the win.  Emily Wilson (Malvern, MA) made one save over the final 9:45. Claire Nolan (West Bridgewater, MA) was credited with a stop in net for the Wildcats. 

WPI outshot the Wildcats by a narrow 9-8 margin while guests held a 7-6 advantage in penalty corners. 

WPI heads to the road Saturday for its next contest.  The Engineers head to Cambridge to take on MIT at 1pm.  Nichols is back in action Thursday at 7pm, entertaining Babson.   

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