Pair of Second Half Goals Lifts Field Hockey Over Siena
(Loudonville, NY- Oct. 2, 2013) Junior Eliana Brown recorded her third multi-goal game of the season to lead the Colgate field hockey team to a 4-2 win over Siena in a midweek matchup on the road.
Brown increased her goal total to nine this season, which is tops on the Raiders. Halle Biggar had a good offensive game with a goal and an assist and Whitney Jones tallied her second score of the season. Olivia Nabhan contributed to the win with an assist, which came on the Raiders’ first goal of the game. Amanda DiDomizio made eight stops to earn the win.
The Saints (0-9) were led by Gabrielle Sullivan and Ashley Dona, who scored the two Siena goals. The Saints used two goalies in the game with Mary Drabich getting the start and she made one save, while Beth Meyers relieved her in the second half and made five stops.
The Saints got up early in the game and had two leads, but the Raiders fought back. Head coach Cathy Foto was pleased with her team and its ability to stay focused after getting down early in the game.
“The team kept fighting and stayed focused even though our execution was up-and-down,” Foto said. “We need more consistency and when you change to field turf it’s a little bit harder. It slows the game down and we were not able to rely on our speed and skills as much.”
Colgate (2-8) had a golden opportunity a minute into the game with Eliana Brown earning a penalty stroke and she went high and to the left side of the cage. Drabich guessed right and blocked it aside to keep it scoreless. The Raiders kept the pressure on with two penalty corners after the stroke, but couldn’t capitalize.
Siena gained the first advantage of the game with a score on its first penalty corner of the game. Gabrielle Sullivan blasted a shot that floated over the top of a stretched out DiDomizio.
Biggar answered just under 23 minutes remaining in the half with a nice entry into the circle for the Raiders. Olivia Nabhan pushed the ball ahead to Biggar, who was alone in front and she hits the back of the net to tie the game at 1-1. The tie didn’t last long as Siena regained the lead with a backhanded shot from Ashley Dona. She received a pass across the circle and DiDomizio went down on the pass. Dona made a move around the goalie and tucked it inside the far post to give the Saints at 2-1 lead.
The Raiders answered right back with Brown scoring her eighth goal of the season with Biggar assisting once again. Biggar got inside the circle and shoveled a pass through the defense to Brown in front of Drabich. Colgate’s leading scorer slid it around the goalie and tied the game.
The action continued into the second half and Jones capitalized on Colgate’s first penalty corner of the half. The initial shot on the penalty corner was knocked down in front and Jones tried to put it in on the first try, but it was blocked. She stayed with it and jammed home the rebound to give the Raiders a 4-2 advantage seven minutes into the half and that proved to be the gamewinner as Colgate’s backline didn’t falter.
Foto praised the defense for the way they played in the second half.
“Our defense played great in the second half, which allowed us to stay focused and in the game,” Foto added. “The team could feel and taste the win today and we were going to go down fighting. That was our mentality and even though the execution wasn’t the greatest, we had it in our minds we were not going to lose the game.”
Siena had a slim advantage in shots at 19-17, but the Raiders put more on net with a 13-10 lead in shots on goal. The game was filled with penalty corners with 24 total. Colgate earned 14 of those corner chances.
The Raiders are back in action on Saturday against American at 1 p.m. at Tyler’s Field as Colgate plays its third game in conference play.