The Lafayette defense played well but a shot by American with a little more than minute into the second overtime dashed the Leopards hope for an upset win this afternoon. Katelyn Arnold stood tall in the cage with 8 saves assisted by Cody Hunsicker who had 2 saves of her own to fight American to a regular time 1-1 tie.
The Leopards opened scoring on a corner opportunity with only 5 minutes gone in the first period. Ellen Colbourne delivered to Amy Turner who tapped it to Amanda Magadan who rifled the shot past the American goalie. Although the first period saw the Leopards end it with a 1-0 lead, much of the offense was on the side of American. American had 8 shots with one save. The Eagles as is their custom used their excellent transition game to challenge the Leopards thoughout the game. There were several occasions that Lafayette was able to get around the overcommitted eagles and it was one of those moments that led to the corner and the Lafayette goal.
The second period saw American redouble their efforts as they were to launch several shots at Kaitlynn Arnold who again was magnificent in the goal. However at 43:06 on a corner of their own, American’s Angela Virtua launched a shot to be deflected by Natalie March for their first and only goal of the second period. It was nine shots to three with two saves for Lafayette as the defense kept Lafayette within striking distance.
The first overtime period visually was to look much the same, as the Leopards turned away the Eagles several times giving up 3 shots while delivering two of their own, one by Rosa Jonckheer who returned to the turf after a 5 game recovery from an injury. The first overtime period ended in a tie.
The second period saw early Eagle action as the tired Leopard defense having performed brilliantly all game gave up the winning goal on a cross at 86:37 by Lucy Whalley.
The Leopards will take on JMU tomorrow at 2 pm and next Saturday will have a must win game at Bucknell. Bucknell lost in a shoot out at Holy Cross making them 1-3 in the League while the Leopards are 2-2 having lost to Holy Cross and now American. Lafayette has still to meet with Lehigh as well as Bucknell and Bucknell will follow next week’s game with a game at Colgate. Bucknell, Lafayette, Holy Cross and Lehigh could find themselves in a tiebreaker situation at the end of the season. Lafayette would avoid that with a win next week and against Lehigh the following week. More about that in a new article later on.
Lafayette College Field Hockey 