GENEVA, N.Y. – The William Smith College ice hockey team dropped an ECAC West contest 6-1 to Utica at The Cooler this afternoon. Utica's Morgan Reed scored a game-high four points on two goals and two assists.

The Pioneers (4-0-0, 2-0-0) jumped out of the gates quickly when Reed potted her first of the game, 17 seconds in. She collected a loose puck and banged home the rebound. Lauren Patterson was credited with an assist on the goal. Utica doubled its lead at 3:14 when Jennifer Liu knocked home a rebound off of another scoring attempt by Reed. Emily Coope extended the Pioneers lead to 3-0 when she fired a shot home from right in front of the cage.

Sophomore Dori Craig scored the Herons goal at 7:37 of the second period. With the teams playing four-on-four, Rebecca Begley created a turnover at the blue line and tapped a pass forward to first-year Tess Madarasz. Madarasz fed a pass to Craig in the slot. Craig fired a wrist shot that beat Keira Goin high glove side. The Herons (2-2-0, 0-2-0) carried a majority of the play in the first half of the second period. William Smith fired 11 shots on cage in the second period but could not beat Goin with any of its other shots.

The Pioneers tacked on three more goals in the third period to ice the victory. Forty seconds into the period, Gabrielle Schnepp made it 4-1. Schnepp carried the puck into the right corner and snuck a shot past William Smith goalie, Maggie Salmon. Reed's second goal of the game came at 5:54. She collected a rebound and threw the loose puck into the empty net. Samantha Husak scored the game's final goal at 18:57 of the third period.

Salmon started in goal for the fourth straight game and made 49 stops including 21 in the third period. Goin stopped all but one Heron shot earning the victory in goal for Utica.
Neither team could get anything going on the power play. Utica was 0-4 while William Smith was 0-2.      
              
William Smith will continue its conference slate next weekend when they welcome Potsdam to The Cooler. Faceoff next Saturday against the Bears is scheduled for 4 p.m.