The Leopards displayed every weapon in their arsenal and put the league on notice that they are ready. Twenty-one players make it onto the turf getting goals from 7 different players with 34 shots to only 7 from the Crusaders. The leopard defense was a stone wall as Sarah Park collected her first career shut out. There was no doubt the Leopards were ready to play as Grace Angelella got the first shot of the game with only about a minute having rolled off the clock.
However, it wasn’t until the second quarter when 19:52 had been expended on the clock that Molly McAndrews collected a rebound and scored the first of her 2 goals for game. The pressure on Holy Cross’ excellent goal keeper was not to let up as the Leopards were to collect 19 shots in the first half.
Scoring was to reignite in the second half as Felicitas Hannes used a rebound to notch Lafayette’s second goal of the game. With that breathing room and an excellent half time analysis by Coach Stone, the offense began to click on all cylinders as we had been waiting to see all season. At 41:34 Sophie Carr deflected a pass from the left and lit up the scoreboard in the 3rd quarter to make it 3-0. Caroline Turnbull followed a minute later on a corner assisted by Ana Steps with the 4th goal of the contest.
In the 4th quarter the Leopards continued to roll as Sam DiMaio got revenge for a near goal that hit the post by using a deflection to score on a pass from Hannes. Audrey Sawers got in on the action with a hard shot from the right at 53:22. The eighth and final goal was to come from Hanna Lewis with her first collegiate goal at 57:15.
Head Coach Stone got as many as she could into the came and by my count had 21 players on the field for this Patriot League opening game.
The Leopards will travel to Cornell to meet a strong Ivy League rival on Monday evening. This will give Cornell plenty to think about. Next, the Raiders from Colgate will come to town for the Leopards second league matchup. Colgate lost to Lehigh 2-1 as Lehigh came from behind in the last 4 minutes to win the game. Bucknell surprised Boston with a 1-0 win in Boston. American also lost, to UC Davis 1-0 on Thursday not playing a PL team this week.
We missed all the live action, as Pam and I are at a family wedding in beautiful Santa Cruz, Ca., but we were cheering every goal and stop, as we followed along with livestats. We supplemented it with some description from Leopard fans who were there. Go Pards.
Lafayette College Field Hockey 