BIDDEFORD — The University of New England field hockey team ousted Becker College 3-1 in the first round of the NCAA Division III playoffs at home Wednesday night.

UNE’s Becky Zakorchemny scored two goals while Nicole Matarozzo scored the other. Becker’s Brittney Bebeau scored their lone goal, while Becker goalie Gabrielle Gallo recorded 18 saves.

UNE coach Danielle Collins was happy with her team’s performance.

“It’s great, having an NCAA game at home is great for us and our university. Heading to the second round of the playoffs is where we want to be and continue to go, it’s a step in the right direction,” said Collins.

From the moment the whistle blew in the first half, UNE was in control.

Throughout the first half, the possession battle tilted greatly in UNE’s favor, with the ball being on Becker’s half of the field for nearly 30 of the first 35 minutes.

UNE also played well defensively, but the story of the night was their aggressive offense that relentlessly pressed Becker in the first.

In the first half, UNE outshot Becker 23-0 – with 13 of those shots being on goal. At the 17:31 mark, Matarozzo gained possession of the ball and shot it from the left side about 25 yards out for the first score, putting the Nor’easters up 1-0.

UNE wasted no time getting on the board again. Less than three minutes later, Zakorchemny received a long pass from Vonde Saunders about 10 yards from the goal and shot the ball in the center of the cage, putting the Nor’easters up 2-0 with less than 15 minutes remaining in the first half.

“Vonde Saunders had a nice pass, and I guess I was just in the right place, I was able to get my stick on it and put it in the back of the net,” said Zakorchemny.

Becker came out more energized in the second half, immediately returning the pressure to UNE. In the opening minutes of the second, Becker managed to bring two drives deep into the UNE zone only to leave empty handed.

Then at the 22-minute mark, there was a scrum in front of the goal, which led to Zakorchemny being able to hack the ball into the back of the cage for her second score, which put UNE up 3-0.

Becker continued to fight, with Bebeau marching the ball down the field and scoring with 3:40 remaining, however it was too late and the game concluded with a 3-1 score.

Collins was pleased with her team’s production, but felt that they could have done even more damage.

“They packed it in, so we had to change our game plan a bit. We couldn’t go through them, so we had to go around them,” said Collins. “Although three goals is a respectable score, in 70 minutes we could have done more.”

Despite allowing three goals, Becker handled the pressure well and played solid defensively, especially Gallo in net.

“They played well defensively. She had some great saves, they had some defensive saves behind, they made it close for us,” said Collins.

According to Zakorchemny, energy and communication will be the key for the Nor’easters moving forward.

“We just need to keep the energy up. We need to keep talking on the field, telling each other to play defense and to get back,” said Zakorchemny.

With this win, UNE improves to an overall record of 17-6 and will be facing Wellesley in the second round on Saturday at Bowdoin College in Brunswick.

— Sports Staff Writer Alex Sponseller can be reached at sports@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 323. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @ JournalTsports.