Shelby Stone

The College of Wooster field hockey team came back from a 3-1 halftime deficit to pull within one and nearly tie the game on several occasions, but a pair of shots off of penalty corners in the closing moments were saved, including one by Shelby Stone as time expired, and Utica College held on for a 3-2 victory in the Scots' season opener at Utica, N.Y., Saturday afternoon.

The teams were locked in a defensive struggle until about midway through the first half, when the Pioneers (1-0) lit up the scoreboard twice during a 2:11 span to take a 2-0 lead. The Scots (1-0) answered back, though, as Taylor Thorp dished to Clare Nelson-Johnson, and the latter delivered her 26th career goal to draw within one.

With under four minutes remaining in the stanza, Utica's Hannah Mackey scored her second goal of the game to put the Pioneers back up by two (3-1) heading into the break.

The Scots made it a one-score game once again early in the second half, when first-year Kate Brondyk received a pass from Nikki Sever and finished for her first career goal to make it 3-2.

During the next 21:30 of play, Utica limited Wooster to just two shot attempts, but the Scots made things interesting in the final 1:13 by firing off three shots on goal. It was Sever who took two of them, which included one via a penalty corner opportunity, and then as the time expired on the clock, the Scots earned one more penalty corner, this time ending with Stone's attempt at a game-tying goal being saved to end the contest.

Goalkeeper Carrie Mount saw the first action of her career, as she played the final two-thirds of the game and tallied 11 saves.

The Scots will look to leave their weekend trip at Utica with a split as they face SUNY Oneonta in a neutral-site game tomorrow at 11 a.m.