LEWISTON — The Bowdoin field hockey team scored four goals through the opening nine minutes of play en route to a 8-0 win over Bates on Wednesday evening.

The sixth ranked Polar Bears improved to 5-1 (3-1 NESCAC) after rattling off 25 shots against the Bobcats (1-5, 0-4 NESCAC), who mustered three.

Bowdoin tallied seven of its eight goals in the opening half of play against Bates, converting on three of its first four shots.

With less than a minute and half off the clock, Emily Simonton scored with an assist from Olivia King. Just six minutes later Rachel Kennedy took advantage of a feed from Katie Riley to push the score up to 2- 0. Simonton followed up with her second goal 22 seconds later.

Bowdoin converted on a corner as King and Riley set up Colleen Finnerty for a hard drive from the top of the circle. With 23:45 still left in the half, Riley found a seam and drove along the right baseline before dishing to an open Kennedy on the far post.

The Polar Bears’ sixth goal of the evening came off another corner as Simonton controlled a Kennedy insert and flicked a shot off a defender’s stick which dropped into the cage.

Liz Znamierowski dished to Kimmie Ganong for the Polar Bears’ seventh goal of the contest.

Znamierowski netted her own unassisted goal 20 minutes into the second half.

Three goalies played for each team, with the Polar Bears combining for one save and the Bobcats combining for six. Hannah Gartner (56:19, one save), Clara Belitz (8:07, no saves) and Liz Rill (5:34, no saves) split the shutout for Bowdoin. Bowdoin held an 11-3 edge in penalty corners in addition to the 25-3 advantage in shots.