Zilen catches 5 passes in Millersville win over Pace

The 6-foot-5, 240-pound junior tight end caught five passes for 37 yards to help Millersville open its football season with a 28-7 victory over Pace on Sept. 1 in Millersville. He caught a 5-yard touchdown pass and also caught a twopoint conversion following his score. Zilen caught one pass as a freshman and it was a 4-yard touchdown reception. He caught 14 passes for 97 yards and a score as a sophomore. The red-shirt freshman wide receiver made his debut with the Bloomsburg football team on Sept. 2 and helped the Huskies post a 24-20 victory over Stonehill. He caught two passes for 44 yards including a 34-yard reception. He also returned three kickoffs for 60 total yards. Redshirt junior Alex Dundore (Exeter Township) started at wide receiver and had one reception which was good for 29 yards. The 5-foot-4 senior is in her third season as starting goalkeeper for the La Salle field hockey team. She opened the season with a 2-0 shutout of Central Michigan, her fourth career shutout, but the Explorers dropped tough 3-2 decisions to Vermont and Temple in her next two starts. For her career, Hartman has given up 76 goals and has 274 saves.

The sophomore finished second in a field of 37 runners to lead Ashland women’s cross country squad to the team title at the season-opening Dayton Flyer 5K in Dayton, Ohio, on Sept. 3. She posted a time of 19:58.4 and missed out on individual honors by eight seconds. Shoemaker earned NCAA Division II All-Ohio Freshman of the Year honors last season. She posted a career-best 6k time of 22:56 at the Division II Midwest Regionals. The junior is in her second season starting in the backfield for the Penn State field hockey team which kicked off its season with four straight victories for the first time since 2003. She has the team’s only defensive save and is third on the team in minutes played (243). The Nittany Lions have outscored foes 20-4 with a 3-0 victory over Virginia the best effort to date. The freshman kicked off his college cross country with Eastern by finishing second out of 78 runners in the season-opening Bryn Mawr Invitational Sept. 1 in Bryn Mawr. Henry covered the 5K course in 17:32.5 finishing behind teammate Greg Thomas. The Eagles also had the third-place finisher to easily capture the team title. The Duke University field hockey team has started the season with four straight victories and three area athletes are key performers for the Blue Devils, currently No. 2 in the country.

Redshirt freshman Sammi Steele has done the job in goal and senior Heather Morris and junior Alyssa Chillano are putting points on the board.

Steele, from Eagleville (Methacton), has given up just three goals with 20 saves and has two shutouts – 1-0 over No. 6 Maryland and 4-0 over No. 13 Liberty. In the Maryland game, she had a college career-high nine saves. She followed that effort up with seven saves in a 3-2 overtime victory over Northwestern – both games played the weekend of Sept. 3-4 in Lancaster.

“Sammi was outstanding, just outstanding,” veteran coach Pam Bustin told the media after the Maryland game. “She made some great saves and that really gave us the energy we needed to keep the ball going forward.”

Morris, from Pottstown (Owen J. Roberts), and Chillano, from Phoenixville (Spring-Ford) both have nine points on four goals and an assist. Chillano has three game-winners – against Northwestern, Liberty and William & Mary. She was named Atlantic Coast Conference Co-Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 6.

The 6-foot-2, 185-pound senior quarterback opened the football season by leading Juniata to a 31-26 victory over Grove City on Sept. 3. He hit 17 of 34 passes for 267 yards and had touchdown tosses of 32 and 10 yards.

“I think what we saw from Hank was a great example of the maturation and growth we have seen from him through the offseason and at preseason camp,” offensive coordinator Scott Knapp said. “Despite some early mistakes by our whole offense, he stepped up and picked us up. He consistently made plays, with both his feet and his arm.”

Coyne had a breakout year last season when he hit 160 of 315 passes for 1,900 yards and 13 touchdowns. The redshirt junior is starting in the backfield once again for the Michigan State field hockey team.

She has helped the 3-1 Spartans limit foes to just seven goals. She had two assists in a 7-1 victory over Central Michigan. Heading into this season, Vagnoni played in 34 games the previous two seasons after sitting out her freshman year.

The 6-foot-1, 200-pound junior started at free safety for the Villanova football team which was beaten 28-7 in the season opener by Pittsburgh of the Atlantic Coast Conference, a Football Bowl Subdivision team, on Sept. 3 in Pittsburgh. He had four tackles. Last season, Stewart played in all 11 games for the Wildcats and had 17 tackles, including 12 solos. The sophomore goalie from Pottstown earned Northeast Conference Defender of the Week honors (Sept. 6) for her play in goal with the St. Francis women’s soccer team. She collected her first collegiate victory making four saves in a 1-0 triumph over Maryland-Baltimore County. She followed that up by making six saves in a 2-0 loss to Wright State. In her first six starts for the 1-5 Red Flash she has given up eight goals (1.33 goals against average) with 43 saves (a .843 save percentage).

The freshman scored Longwood’s second goal late in the first half and it proved to be a winner as the Lancers posted a 2-1 women’s soccer victory over Duquesne on Sept. 2. It was her first collegiate goal and one of just four goals that 1-4 Longwood has scored in the early going. Kupsov had 65 goals and 45 assists in her four years at OJR.

The Ursinus football team dropped its season opener 23-13 to Bethany on Sept. 2 in Bethany, W.Va. but the Bears got a big effort on defense from the true freshman back who came off the bench to record three solo tackles, including one for a loss. The 5-foot9, 170-pounder also had an interception and a pass breakup. The 5-foot-3 junior finished ninth out of 64 runners and was second best on the Rider squad in the season-opening Blue/Gold Classic cross country race on Sept. 3 in Pennington, N.J. She covered the 5k course in 19:19.37.