CANTON, N.Y. - Sophomore forward Samantha Engel (Dryden, N.Y./Dryden) notched her first career hat-trick as the Daemen Wildcats opened their 2011 season with an impressive 8-2 dispatching of the SUNY Canton Roos.

Engel's three tallies nearly match her entire goal output from a season ago (4) as she connected on the team's second and third goals of the game, with assists by senior Jenelle Masi (Greece, N.Y./Greece Athena) and junior Kelsey O'Leary (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Olympia), respectively. Engel's third marker came on a penalty kick and sent the Wildcats into halftime with a 5-1 lead.

"We played real well out of our system today," said third-year head coach Dan Dolan. "We were able to maintain possession of the ball and our movement off the ball was very good. We still need to shore up the back end a bit, but, overall we played pretty well."

Engel wasn't the only Wildcat to reach the back of the net on multiple occasions. O'Leary, who suffered through a season filled with injuries a year ago, returned to the lineup and recorded the team's first goal of the season off a feed from senior Lindsay Miller (Pocono Lake, Pa./Pocono Mountain West); O'Leary added her second of the afternoon later in the first half.

Daemen added three more tallies in the second half as freshman Selina Zaccaria (Tonawanda, N.Y./Kenmore East), senior Alicia Vasiloff (East Syracuse, N.Y./East Syracuse-Minoa) and sophomore Brianna VanScoter (Arkport, N.Y./Arkport Central) all found the back of the net. Vasiloff added an assist as did freshman Brittany Orr (St. Marys, Pa./St. Marys) while Masi added her second helper of the game.

The Wildcats return to action this Thursday in a local road game at Buffalo State College at 4 p.m. They open the home portion of their 2011 schedule on Saturday when they face Rio Grande (Ohio) at 3:30 p.m. at Dimp Wagner Stadium behind Amherst High School.