LEWISTON, Maine -- The No. 9 nationally ranked Bates field hockey team scored three of their four goals in the third quarter on their way to a 4-1 win over No. 25 Trinity Saturday afternoon at Campus Ave. Field in the NESCAC opener for both teams. 

Senior Maria Femia (Canton, Mass.) scored a pair of goals in the win for the Bobcats (2-0, 1-0 NESCAC) while senior Anna Cote (New Gloucester, Maine) dished out two assists. Sophomore Haley Dwight (West Newbury, Mass.) tallied her first collegiate goal and added a clutch defensive save. Junior Lucy Norris (Chicago, Ill.) scored her first collegiate goal as well. 

Bates controlled play in the first half against the Bantams (1-1, 0-1 NESCAC), tallying 12 shots to Trinity's two, but the Bobcats did not find the back of the cage.

Meanwhile, Trinity threatened late in the second quarter when the Bantams earned a penalty corner in the 29th minute. Izzy Deveney took a shot from the left side of the circle off the insert, and would have found the back-right side of the cage if not for Dwight, who was waiting for it, and she deflected the ball over the cage and out of bounds for a clutch defensive save. 

Thanks to Dwight's heroics, the game stood 0-0 at halftime. 

In the 33rd minute, the Bobcats finally got on the board on a great individual effort from Femia. Cote got Femia the ball outside the circle and Femia went right up the middle through the defense, beating the goalie with a slick shot that found the back-right of the cage for a 1-0 lead. 

Bates took advantage of a penalty corner in the 36th minute. Junior Brooke Moloney-Kolenberg (Winchester, Mass.) delivered the insert to junior Summer Gordon (North Andover, Mass.) and Gordon fed the ball to Cote at the top of the shooting circle. Cote fired a shot to the lower left side of the cage where Norris was waiting, and Norris tipped it in for a 2-0 Bates advantage. 

Just over a minute later, the Bobcats struck again. Cote stole a pass off a restart, and knew just what to do with it, feeding the ball ahead to Femia, who spun once and ripped it past two defenders and the Trinity goalie for her second goal of the quarter and a 3-0 lead for the home team. 

The Bobcats capped off their big day on offense in the 52nd minute. Once again, they took advantage of a penalty corner and some chaos around the cage. Senior captain Anna Lindeis (New Canaan, Conn.) got off an initial shot from the top of the circle that was denied by Trinity keeper Hayley Gable. Then Cote tried to send in the rebound, but Gable stopped that as well. Luckily the ball ended up on the stick of Dwight, who scored from the doorstep at a tough angle for a commanding 4-0 advantage. 

Trinity did get one back in the 57th minute when Deveney scored on a penalty stroke, but by then it was too little, too late for the visitors. 

Saturday's win marks the Bates field hockey team's largest margin of victory over the Bantams since 2002. Bates finished with 28 shots, 15 on goal, while Trinity tallied five shots, three on goal. The Bobcats earned seven penalty corners while Trinity earned just one. Gable made 11 saves for the Bantams. Junior Kaili Jacobsen (Fairfield, Conn.) only needed to make one save for the Bobcats.

Bates is back in action Wednesday at 6 p.m. when they welcome No. 3 nationally ranked Babson to town for a rematch of last year's second-round NCAA tournament game between the Bobcats and the Beavers.