WORCESTER, Mass. -- Samantha Hayes (Norwood, Mass.) forced overtime with a goal late in regulation and Brittany Cullinane (Lunenburg, Mass.) won it for Bridgewater State with a marker early in the second overtime as the visiting Bears defeated WPI 3-2 in a non-conference field hockey contest played Tuesday afternoon.
With the victory, BSU improves to 2-0 on the young season while the Engineers dip to 1-2 overall.
Trailing originally 2-0 and then down a goal with under five minutes left, BSU drew even with just 4:45 left in regulation when Hayes drove into the box and ripped a shot into the bottom left corner.
BSU kept the pressure on in regulation, notching two more shots but one was saved while the other sailed wide left.
After a first overtime session that saw both team fire three shots and the Bears attempt five of seven corners, Cullinane sent the Bears home victorious just 2:40 into the second OT session when the senior captain received a pass from Tori O'Dea (South Dennis, Mass.) and fired the game-winner into the left corner.
The Engineers found the back of the net first, when Sabrina Guzzi (Suffield, Conn.) buried a feed from Carly Cidado (Easton, Mass.) midway through the opening half for her first goal of the season and third of her career.
The second half started out at a frantic pace. Bridgewater State back Katherine McKenna (Wilmington, Mass) recorded a pair of defensive saves in the opening five minutes of the stanza before WPI doubled its advantage when Jena Mazzucco (Danbury, Conn.) knocked home a pass by Izzy Garver (Owls Head, Maine) from the left box into the right corner at 40:22 for her second marker of the season and 11th of her career.
The visiting Bears answered right back 30 seconds later when Cullinane fed Julianne Kilduff (Bellingham, Mass.), who emerged from a scramble in front to of the net to notch her first goal of the season.
Allison Chappell (Raynham, Mass.) collected six saves in net for the Bears while Karen Noble (Mariaville, Maine) tallied five stops for the hosts.
The game was statistically close with both teams posting 11 shots and Bridgewater enjoying a slight 12-10 edge in penalty corners.
WPI is back in action on Saturday venturing to Chicopee to face Elms at 1pm. Bridgewater State continues a busy opening week on Thursday, hosting Southern Maine at 7pm in the Little East Conference for both squads.