PLYMOUTH, N.H. - Sophomore Marie Amaral (Barre, Vt.) knocked home a deflection late in the second half Wednesday afternoon to lift the Castleton State College field hockey team to a 2-1 non-conference victory over Plymouth State University in the Panthers' season opener at Arold Field.

Amaral's goal, scored with 13:47 remaining, came after a double-deflection in the box and put the Spartans ahead to stay. Castleton was playing its third game of the season and improves to 2-1 while PSU falls to 0-1.

Junior Kayla Blank (Whitesboro, Vt.) opened the scoring for the Spartans midway through the first half after streaking down the left sideline and slipping a shot past PSU senior goalie Katie Randall (Portsmouth, N.H.). The Panthers answered with just under six minutes left in the opening half when senior Amy McGrath (Townsend, Mass.) fired a shot from the top of the circle and sophomore Morgan Lemmon (Gilford, N.H.) deflected it in to make it a 1-1 game at halftime.

Castleton State finished with a 15-14 advantage in shots, including 11-6 in the second half. Randall finished with 13 saves for PSU, while junior Trisha Clark (East Dover, Vt.) made 12 saves for the Spartans.

Plymouth State opens Little East Conference play this Saturday with an 11:00 a.m. contest at Salem State. CSC also returns to action Saturday with a visit to the University of New England (2:00 p.m.)

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