Castleton's Hayley Spittle moves the ball downfield against a Maine-Farmington defender.
Christopher Williams/Castleton Spartan

The sun beat on the Spartan logo in Spartan Stadium last Saturday like Mohammed Ali on Joe Frasier, as Castleton State College field hockey hosted Main-Farmington in their conference opener.
The Spartans came out of the gates aggressive, but it was the Beavers who struck gold first with a trickler that slowly made it over the stick of the Spartan goalkeeper.
Castleton struggled throughout the day to clear the ball from its defensive zone and at times looked indecisive, which ended up costing them some goals.
“We were adjusting to a new formation we put in Wednesday. Still learning it,” said senior defensemen Karissa McCoy.
Maine-Farmington would capitalize again on a costly turnover by Castleton putting them in a 0-2 hole.
When the Spartans did clear the defensive zone cleanly, they set themselves up with good scoring chances in the offensive zone, but couldn’t find twine.
When a group of players in front of the Beaver’s goal were hacking for the ball, it rebounded off defenders three times before the Spartans broke the ice with their first goal on the third try.
A few minutes later, Castleton would send a ball across the middle of Main-Farmington’s goal, where Anna-Michelle Fabian’s stick tipped it into the net tying the game 2-2. It stayed that way going into the half.
The Spartans once again came out aggressive at the start of the second half like they did the first, but this time they had better luck.
A few minutes in, Leah Holland scored on a second-chance rebound after a shot and gave her team the 3-2 lead.
Momentum had clearly shifted.
During an aggressive play by abian in front of the Beaver’s goal, she got taken down hard and was rewarded a penalty stroke that Kristy Pinkham netted in the top left corner, giving the Spartans a 4-2 lead.
Despite the momentum swing in Castleton’s favor, the Beavers managed to claw back with two consecutive goals tying it up at 4-4.
Spartan goalie Jess Galatiato saved a penalty stroke with roughly 20 minutes left in the game after she had fell on it in desperation.
The game would finally be decided when a penalty cross by the Beavers deflected off a stick up over the heads of everyone, including Galatiato, into the net for the eventual game winning goal.
Though it was a tough one to lose, McCoy, said there were improvements made.
“We’re definitely getting better and definitely better than last game,” McCoy said.
McCoy weighed in on what the team needs to do for success in the near future.
“We need to play a full 70 minutes and when we’re going up, we need to stay up,” McCoy said.
The Spartans fall to 0-6 overall and 0-1 in conference. They will travel to play Husson University on Oct 7.