WEST HAVEN, Conn. – Junior Erin Smith (Warrington, Pa./Central Bucks South) struck twice under the lights on Tuesday night to lead the New Haven Field Hockey team to a 2-1 win over the visiting Adelphi Panthers in the Chargers final regular season home game. With the win, New Haven improves 7-10 on the season and evens its Northeast-10 Conference record to 6-6 with one game remaining in the regular season.

Smith's first goal of the evening came less than seven minutes into the action when she collected the ball at the top of the arc, dribbled down the middle around her defender and sent a shot to the opposite corner.

That early goal stood as the only scoring in the first half as New Haven took a 1-0 lead into the intermission despite the Panthers holding a 9-3 lead in the shot column. In the first 30 minutes of action, New Haven's keeper Cara Lambert (Sutton, Mass./Sutton Memorial) racked up five saves on the nine Adelphi shots.

Just before the end of the third quarter, Smith struck again this time dribbling more than 20 yards after a takeaway at midfield. She would dribble all the way into the arc where she drilled a shot that slammed the backboard for what would turn out to be a very important insurance goal and the eventual game-winner.

The Panthers cut the Chargers lead in half with just over a minute to play but wouldn't get much more of a look in the final 78 seconds of action. For the game, Adelphi held an 18-7 lead in shots with Lambert closing out her night with nine total saves, matching her third highest in an NE10 match.

New Haven will close out the regular season this coming weekend as they head to Long Island to take on the Molloy Lions on Saturday, November 2. All of the action from Cedar Creek Park is slated to get underway at 12:00 p.m.