GORHAM, Maine – Senior Brooke Dugan (Thomaston, Maine/Oceanside) scored the game-deciding goal in the 68th minute to secure a 2-1 win for the University of Southern Maine Huskies over the Plymouth State University Panthers in a Little East Conference field hockey game Wednesday evening at Hannaford Field.  

            The win is the second consecutive for the Huskies who improve to 8-7 overall and 6-3 in the Little East Conference.  Suffering its second straight set back, Plymouth State is now 4-9 overall and 4-6 in LEC action.  The win is the first for Southern Maine over the Panthers since a 4-1 win in the LEC quarterfinals in the 2014 season, and just the 16th win against Plymouth State in the 54-game series between the two schools. 

            Despite outshooting the Panthers 9-2 in the first half, Southern Maine entered the halftime break in a 0-0 draw.   Junior Dorina Sirois (Saco, Maine/Thornton Academy) made it 1-0 in favor of her team in the 49th minute, driving in her seventh goal of the season off of an assist from classmate Maggie Redman (Alfred, Maine/Massabesic).  Continuing to control the play of the game, Dugan added an insurance goal late in the game when she redirected a pass out of the air from junior Makayla Garvin (Springvale, Maine/Sanford) for her first goal of the season and a 2-0 USM lead with less than two minutes to play.  

            Dugan's goal proved to be integral, however, as the Panthers took a goal back from the Huskies on a penalty corner with just seconds remaining in regulation for the 2-1 final.  Plymouth State senior Patty Newhard (South Dennis, Mass./Dennis-Yarmouth Regional) converted an assist from junior Kaihley Rafferty (Salem, Conn./East Lyme) in the final moments of the game for her second goal of the season. 

            Freshman Lindsay Pych (West Milford, N.J./Morristown-Beard) made one save in the win for the Huskies as USM outshot PSU 17-3 in the game.  Sophomore Jess Distler (Brookfield, N.H./Kingswood Regional) made eight saves in the loss for the Panthers.  

            The Huskies are back in action on Saturday (4:00 p.m.) when they travel to conference leader Castleton.  

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