Lafayette wasted little time lighting up the scoreboard on the southwest corner of the field with a strike by Molly McAndrews assisted by Anna Steps 2:45 into the game. The goal was preceded by strong play, and control of the tempo against the Colgate Raiders. Whenever Colgate seemed to take control of the ball, the Leopards were there, with tackles, and subsequent power, to drive the ball past the 25 into the circle. In fact, the Leopards scored three more times during the half. The second goal occurred at 14:57, as Lisa van der Geest scored her first goal of the season off a corner assisted by Simone Hefting, and Anna Steps. It was a typical Van der Geest rocket set up by her countryman and stopper Simone Hefting.
The Leopards would have to wait for the second quarter, when at 18:34 Caroline Turnbull delivered for her team. Van der Geest was in on the goal, as she assisted Turnbull for her 3rd goal of the season. Van der Geest found the back of the cage later in the half with her second goal of the game and year, assisted again by Hefting and Steps.
The stats for the half tell the whole story. The Leopards had 9 shots in the half to 0 shots for Colgate. In addition, the “Pards” had nine penalty corners to Colgate’s one. In fact Colgate was to generate only 2 shots the whole game and Sara Park didn’t have to make a save all game.
The 4 goal first half was enough to get the win, and Colgate was able to slow the scoring with renewed aggressiveness, and one on one play. In many cases the Leopards were so anxious to continue their domination in the game, they often were ahead of passes and rushed their offense sets. However, they did get an additional 6 shots in the second half and 3 more penalty corners.
The defense had a good day turning Colgate away, and the first half transition game was awesome. Give Colgate credit, they never gave up, but the Lafayette defense was to stymie them for 60 minutes. Early on, they tried to press but Lafayette was to break that up, which led to scoring opportunities and circle penetration. Going to a zone defense did slow the Leopards a bit, but they adjusted, but couldn’t find the shots to find the back of the cage during the second half. The Colgate goalie was forced to make 7 saves.
I was delighted for Lisa van der Geest get her first goals of the season after several close chances earlier in this year. However, this was a team effort as 18 of the 24 players make it on to the turf.
In other Patriot League action, American beat Bucknell 3-1, and Holy Cross held off Lehigh 4-2. This leaves Lafayette on top of the League undefeated, followed by 1-0 American, 1-1 Bucknell, Lehigh, Boston and Holy Cross, and 0-2 Colgate.
The Leopards will face their 3rd top 25 team in Monmouth tomorrow at home at 2 pm. They also had two other pre-season games with top 25 credentials.
Lafayette College Field Hockey 
Great report. Go Leopards!
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