VILLANOVA, PA - In the 2006 season opener, the La Salle Explorer field hockey team cruised to an easy victory over the visiting Appalachian State Mountaineers in a game held at Villanova Stadium on Sunday afternoon.  The Explorers now boast a 1-0 record, while the Mountaineers fall to 0-2 after losing to Villanova a day ago.

The 2006 La Salle team wasted no time in getting on the scoreboard, as Kara Harpel took a pass from last season's leading scorer Jillian Moser in front of the cage and scored on a wide open shot with 5:21 elapsed in the game to earn a goal in her collegiate debut.

Despite controlling the game, La Salle managed just one goal in the first half, but that all changed after the break.  The Explorers got an easy goal from senior Laura Farley with 29:12 to play to give La Salle a 2-0 lead.  16 minutes later, sophomore Maria Allegretto knocked in an unassisted goal to extend the Explorers lead.

With under 10 minutes to play, Allison Geiger used a pass from Whitney Madron on a penalty corner to score La Salle's fourth goal of the game.  Just one minute later, the Explorers capitalized on another penalty corner, this time with Farley scoring, her second of the afternoon, also with the help of Madron.  Allegretto closed out the scoring for La Salle with 6:33 to play, registering her second of the afternoon.

The Explorers tallied 13 shots in the game, with 11 of those shots on goal, while the Mountaineers managed just two shots on goal and a total of four shots for the game. 

La Salle held an advantage in penalty corners, earning seven, while giving up just one to Appalachian State.  La Salle goalkeeper Ellen Axelsen earned the shutout and tallied two saves.  At the other end of the field, Appalachian State's Mikayla Paulson competed the first 47:58 and allowed two goals; Paulson also recorded all five of the teams saves.  Sabra Holt checked-in for the last 22:02 of competition and allowed four goals with no saves.

The Explorers will return to action on August 30th, when they travel to nearby Drexel for a 4:00 p.m. start.