EWING, N.J. – The College of New Jersey field hockey team started slow Saturday afternoon before exploding for four second-half goals to defeat Ramapo College 5-0 in the conference opener for both teams. The second-ranked Lions improved to 9-0 overall with the victory, while the Roadrunners dropped to 4-8 on the season.
 
Neither side could push across a goal for most of the first half until with 10 minutes reaming in the second quarter TCNJ earned a corner. Camryn Ley received the insert from Jess Hatch and fired a shot that beat the Roadrunner goalie. TCNJ would take a 1-0 lead into the break.
 
"I've been working on that shot every day at practice," said Ley. "When the opportunity came up during the game I was ready to take advantage of it."
 
The Lions overwhelmed Ramapo in the second half. Midway through the third quarter Ley again found the back of the cage off a corner shot. After the buzzer sounded to end the third quarter, TCNJ continued to apply pressure on a penalty corner. Kayla Peterson played a centering pass to Cayla Andrews, who scored her 17^th of the season.
 
Early in the fourth, Andrews found the rebound of a Tori Hannah shot on her stick which she dumped into the back of the net to extend the lead to 4-0. Hannah would close out the scoring with just over three minutes to go. Peterson played a long stick to stick pass to Hannah, who was waiting in the circle. Hannah had just the goalie to beat and she scored her fifth of the season.
 
"We really came together as a team in the second half," said Ley. "Everyone was motivating each other to push through. We cleaned up our play and really stuck to our strategy from the start of the game."
 
TCNJ improved to 16-0 all-time against Ramapo.
 
The Lions out-shot the Roadrunners 28-6 for the game, including 18-0 in the second half.
 
The Lions return to action Tuesday, when they host Eastern University at 4:30 p.m.