Garden City, N.Y. -- Four second half goals for the visiting Stonehill Skyhawks turned around a halftime deficit and led them past the Adelphi University field hockey team by a 5-4 final in the Panthers' Northeast-10 Conference opener on Wednesday night.

Adelphi (3-3, 0-1 NE-10) got goals from four different players in the setback, en route to building a 4-1 lead early in the second half. Elizabeth Mercuri scored the first goal of the game for the Brown and Gold, also recording the assist on an Emily Power tally in the first half for a team-high three points. Also scoring for Adelphi were Jamie Ahrens and Samantha Nizich, while Elissa Frein accounted for Adelphi's other assist and Bridget Geyer stopped four shots in her first career start.

Just 93 seconds into the game, Mercuri got the Panthers on the board behind her third goal of the season, tapping in Frein's pass from the top of the circle in front of the goal. Stonehill's leading scorer Kacie Smith scored her first of a game-high three goals just over 10 minutes later to tie things up at 1-1, as she beat Geyer over her right shoulder for the unassisted tally. Breaking the tie at the 21:23 mark was Power, who fired Mercuri's cross past Sara Freedman in the Stonehill (5-1, 2-0 NE-10) net to make it 2-1, before Ahrens scored off her own blocked shot with under four minutes to play in the half to make it a 3-1 game at halftime.

After Lena Pollich pushed a one-on-one opportunity wide of Freedman just 58 seconds into the second half, Stonehill's Carly Andersen made it a one goal game down the other end, taking an Alexandria Sylvia cross from the right side past Geyer and in. Nonetheless, Nizich responded for the Panthers, as she fired home the rebound off Ahrens' saved shot to put Adelphi back up by two, 4-2, with 40:16 remaining. 

From there, the Skyhawks' comeback began as Andersen scored again off a feed from Shea Healy with 42:41 remaining, and Smith tallied her second goal of the contest to even things up at 4-4 nearly 10 minutes later to force an Adelphi timeout. Just over a minute out of the break, Smith made it a hat trick, as MacKenzie Greenberg fed her from outside the circle and she scored with her back to the goal to give Stonehill its first lead. 

Looking for the equalizer, the Panthers pushed late, getting three penalty corner opportunities in the final 15 minutes, but both Pollich and Ahrens' shots on goal met the pads of Freedman.

In total, Freedman made eight saves in net against the Adelphi attack, as the two teams were even in total shots (14 apiece) with the Panthers leading 12-9 in shots on goal. 

The Panthers are back in action on Saturday, Sept. 24 when they host the Purple Knights of Saint Michael's College in a 1 pm NE-10 contest. 

NOTES
- Stonehill ranked #5 nationally in the latest edition of the NFHCA Division II Coaches' Poll.
- Stonehill's Kacie Smith is the conference's leading scorer with 12 goals.

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About Adelphi Athletics:
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009 and in the past seven seasons, has collected 18 regular season conference titles, 22 tournament championships, 29 individual crowns and captured the Northeast-10 Presidents' Cup three times (2013, 2014, and 2016), while winning five NCAA Division II National Championships.

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