Longwood University marched into Lafayette’s home turf sporting a 3-1 record, their best start ever since they went to division one. The Leopards were ready, having played several close games with this team before. Several years ago the game went to overtime, only to be solved by penalty strokes, and last year scoring was not an issue as the storm delayed game in Virginia went to overtime won by Lafayette with an Ami Turner goal. This year was not an overtime affair, but the Lancers were indeed the best Longwood team Lafayette has faced. However, with Lafayette coming off a very disappointing loss on friday, the Leopards turned their game up a notch.
The first half was a very solid affair with the Maroon and White dominating play and getting off 7 shots, while holding Longwood to no shots. In addition, the Leopards were to get four corners, only to be turned away by the Lancer goalie, Lauren Benard. It was an aggressive Leopard midfield and attack that was to strike first at 17:07 as Amanda Magadan broke free at midfield and spotted two Lafayette attackers in front of the goal, Ami Turner and Rosie Shanks. Delivering a pass to Turner, Turner lunged for the ball as the Longwood goalie went to stop the shot. I couldn’t see if Turner actually got a stick on the ball, but the ball ended going past the Longwood goalie as Rosie Shanks dove and delivered the ball in back of the goalie for the first score ,which held up for the remainder of the first period.
Longwood opened the second period with determination, as their ace scorer Edel Nyland broke free and at 36:54 drew Lafayette goalie Katelyn Arnold out of the cage, deliviering a tying, unassisted goal. Longwood was to deliver 5 shots in the second period but Arnold was to make 3 crucial saves to keep the Longwood score at one.
The score remained tied, until 45:48 when Kristen Taylor inserted a ball on a corner which eventually ended off the goalie, in the air, only to be knocked into the cage by Amanda Magadan, assisted by Lisa Van der Geest. It was to remain 2-1 as Longwood tried to regroup with a timeout at 49:15.
The game became very physical on both sides, and with 17 minutes left, the official awarded a dual 10 minute yellow card to each side. The game ended with two significant efforts by Nyland and Leonie Verstrate only to be turned away by Arnold. The Leopards then controlled the remainder of game taking home the win 2-1. Lafayette had 14 shots to Longwood’s 5, 10 corners to Longwoods 2, forcing Longwood to make 7 saves vs Arnold’s 3.
The next game will be with Yale in New Haven at 12:00 on Saturday . Yale beat Sacred Heart in their opening game 2-0 this weekend. Lafayette will then take on Quinnipiac who suffered their third loss against Central Michigan. That game will be at Yale at 5:30 on Sunday as Quinnipiac will have begun construction of their new field.
Addendum: Both Yale and Quinnipiac played on Monday with Yale taking home an overtime win against Bryant and Quinnipiac losing to Michigan State.
Lafayette College Field Hockey 