After splitting her time between the field and ice hockey teams at Saint Michael’s the past two years, Cranston native and La Salle product Arianna Boscia has chosen to focus on the latter this winter.

By deciding to focus her athletic energies on one sport, the former Ram has hit the ice sprinting towards the goal this season, leading the Purple Knights in goals after their first four games of the campaign.

Boscia opened her 2018-19 account on October 20 against Post, firing home the fourth marker in a 5-0 shutout of the Eagles to give Saint Michael’s its first win of the winter after falling 2-1 to the same opponent the previous night.

The Purple Knights returned to the rink this past weekend to take on SUNY-Potsdam in a home-and-home, dropping the opener on enemy ice last Friday by a 4-1 score.

In the return game, Boscia gave Saint Michael’s the lead with two seconds remaining in the first period, ripping a slap shot from the point through a forest of bodies to find the net for her first of two on the day.

Her second of the contest came with 90 seconds remaining and was entirely of her own doing, as the junior defender blocked a SUNY-Potsdam shot and then proceeded to send the puck down the length of the ice into the yawning Bear goal to put the Purple Knights 3-0 up.

The visitors managed to break the shutout moments later with a power play goal from Shelbi Thacker, but her contribution served as nothing more than the consolation tally in a 3-1 victory for Saint Michael’s, their first ever against SUNY-Potsdam.

By splitting both their opening series, the Purple Knights are now 2-2 on the season, matching their start to the previous campaign in which they swept Post but were swept by SUNY-Potsdam.

Next up for Boscia and her Saint Michael’s teammates will be their opening games of the conference slate, traveling to face off against Franklin Pierce in a pair of encounters next weekend before returning home to take on Saint Anselm on the 16th and the 17th of November. There was no back-to-back victory for Cranston East alumna Shayna Cousineau at the Little East championship cross-country meet, but the ex-Thunderbolt was able to help Rhode Island College occupy two-thirds of the podium.

The sophomore came home in third place in a time of 20 minutes, six seconds, finishing nine seconds behind teammate and runner-up Margaret McCaffery on the five-kilometer layout.

In the team competition, the Anchorwomen rounded out the top three with 84 points, finishing behind Eastern Connecticut (64) and Keene State (54), who claimed the championship for the 18th time in the last 19 years. La Salle alum and Cranston native Peyton Phillips has hauled in seven catches for a total of 67 yards this fall for the University of New England, who fell to 1-6 on the season after a 33-10 setback to Salve Regina on Saturday...Ex-Falcon Zach Ramsey played in 17 matches this season for Lasell while racking up three assists for the Lasers, who finished the campaign last Wednesday with a 7-2 defeat on the road against Framingham State.