The Lafayette Leopards found a swarming, diverse offense in a 3-2 victory this afternoon at Rappolt Field. Paige Macrae used an assist from Ellen Colborne to score the first goal of her career. Using her strength in front of the goal Macrae gathered a nice feed right in the face of the Ball State goalie to open up a 1-0 lead 3 minutes and 15 seconds into the game. Ball State was not to be shut out as Lexi Kavanaugh used a Morgan Nash long pass to deflect the ball into the cage from the right side into the top right corner to knot the score at 1-1 at 20 minutes and 52 seconds into the game. It was at that point that the Leopards were to go ahead at 29:52 and were never to give up the lead when Amanda Madagan launched an unassisted high shot into the top right corner from the top of the circle.
However, the Leopards were not done as only five minutes later with only 50 seconds left in the half, Hannah Millen was to deliver an insurance goal off a corner using an assist from Kirby Szalkowski and Rosie Shanks. The Leopards had to work hard for the final victory as Ball State with 46 seconds left in the game had Merinda Morley take a pass deflecting the ball into the goal. Time finally expired with Lafayette the victors.
The game had several notable aspects, first the Leopards showed
some offensive power as they took 17 shots compared to Ball State’s 13. The second point is the Leopards had too many turnovers, a point that will surely be corrected in practice before the Sienna game on tuesday. Third, there was a flurry of cards, more than I have seen in most Division one games.Fourth, the field was very hot and contributed to the fatigue that both teams felt, especially at the end of the game. There was a total of 26 minutes worth of cards given out to both sides. Lafayette in the first half, played short players for 12 minutes, which made their 3-1 lead that much more remarkable. In the second half, the Cardinals had 10 minutes in penalties, versus two minutes for the Leopards. A two minute penalty was awarded to Lafayette’s best player Amanda Madagan with less than one minute left in the game. In total. there were 7 cards given out, four yellows and three greens.
The Leopards will now play Sienna on tuesday night at 7pm at home
Lafayette College Field Hockey 