by David F. Pendrys (Eyewitness account checked against official box score.)

WEST HARTFORD, CT-The Maine Black Bears and Hartford Hawks showed intense effort but were unable to best each other Sunday afternoon as their contest resulted in a 1-1 draw. After a scoreless first half, which had almost no shots on goal for that matter, Hartford eventually got on the board as Aaliyah Ingram fed Tori Tripp and Tripp outmaneuvered Maine goalie Claudia Dube-Trempe and rolled it into the net. Maine picked up a penalty shot opportunity when a foul was called close to the goal on a Black Bears drive. Charlene Achille took the shot and knocked it to the left of Hartford’s Jessica Jurg.

After that there was obviously no scoring through the rest of the game and two overtimes. Each team had their chances, though few really good ones as the team’s defenses were very adept at thwarting the plans. It was not easy to keep track of all the defensive efforts given how many times the scoring attempts were upturned, however Hartford’s Stephanie Santos had a critical stop late in the game as Maine swept in, she snatched the ball away blunting the momentum. Both teams really didn’t let the opportunities develop, including on the usually dangerous corner kicks.

Jurg faced 5 shots and made 4 saves including perhaps the only especially difficult save of the game when she deflected a sailing shot over the net. Dube faced 4 shots and made 3 saves. Achille actually had 4 of Maine’s 5 shots on goal itself with Abby Maker the lone other Maine player with one. Hartford’s Julia Carr, Erica Primovic and Hayley Nolan had the 3 Hartford shots other than Tripp’s. The Hawks took 17 shots overall, and the Black Bears took 14.

Hartford is now 6-2-2 (0-0-1 in the America East.), Maine is 5-3-1 (0-0-1 in the America East). The Hawks take on Stony Brook in another America East contest on Thursday.