Sinead Walsh moves the ball around the BU defense
Today the Patriot League opened its season and the rest of division one continued its play with it own series of surprises. The Patriot League was to have three games, but the game between Lehigh and American was postponed. So both teams will play their first games next week. Lehigh will be at Lafayette and American will be playing Bucknell who lost their opener today 2-1 against Colgate.
I suppose BU was expected to beat the Crusader of Holy Cross but it wasn’t easy, as Holy Cross did fall 2-1 after a fourth quarter goal Goalkeeping was a huge question mark for both teams. Holy Cross needed to find a successor to Marcia LaPlante who was a four year starter but graduated last year. Head Coach Lindsay Jackson’s choice was senior Emma Skumurski, who performed well in her first action. Meanwhile, BU had its own battle for GK as Sally Starr went with sophomore Caroline Kelly against first year recruit from New Zealand Kate Thompson.
It was a competitive game with with Kelly coming up with 4 saves and Skurmurski turning away 6 saves. Holy Cross faced shots 13 shots while Boston faced 11 shots. Eight of Boston’s shots were on goal while Holy Cross had 5. Boston had 7 corners and Holy Cross had 3.
The final score was to be 2-1 in BU’s favor. Boston’s two goals bookended the game, the first coming with less than two minutes into the game and the last with less than three minutes left. The first goal came from Boston’s Kathryn Scheerer off a penalty corner. The Crusaders tied it up late in the first quarter off a Kristen Weber goal delivered close in off a rebound. Late in the fourth quarter BU’s Rebecca James found the back of the net for the game winner through a flurry of defenders.
In between, the game went back and forth and seemed destined for overtime. Holy Cross has a bye next week and will meet Colgate on the 21st in Hamilton. Boston will also have bye and meet Lafayette @ Rappolt Field on the 21st.
Meanwhile, Colgate was to emerge victorious in a 2-1 game at Lewisburg which saw Bucknell do everything but find the back of the net. Gate opened up scoring in the first period with a Meghan Minturn goal off a redirection. It wasn’t until the 3rd quarter that Bucknell finally found the back of cage off a Kari Melberger goal to the right post. One minute later Colgate answered with a Mari Kniezewski game winning goal to end the scoring for both teams. Gate had three shots ( all on goal) while Bucknell had 15 shots (12 on goal). The Colgate goal keeper, Anna Unger, had 11 saves and Claire McCormack and Peyton Fischer split goaltending duties for Buckell with McCormack posting 0 saves and Fischer having 1 save.
An angry Bucknell team will travel to DC to meet American and Colgate will have a bye and greet Holy Cross on the 21st.
Lafayette College Field Hockey 