Last night, the only thing more dreary than the weather was the Red’s field hockey performance at Colgate. Riding high after a strong start to the season and with aspirations of a winning record, the Red suffered a letdown yesterday evening, loosing to the Raiders 3-1 and dropping its record to 1-2.
“We were very disappointed about tonight’s performance,” said head coach Donna Hornibrook. “A lot of factors went into tonight’s loss. Colgate was much more physical than us. Our execution was sloppy. We need to reassess things. After a solid performance against Lafayette, we did not compete well tonight.”
The Red was dominated across the board. It was out shot by Colgate 24 to 7, and the Raiders had 11 more penalty corners than the Red. The Colgate win was its first victory over the Red at home since 1996.
The scoring began just four minutes into the game when Colgate senior co-captain Ashley Schnieder scored an unassisted goal off a rebound. Red goalie, senior Lori Blutinger, was able to make the initial save, but the Raiders attack was relentless, and the Red failed to clear the ball, leading to the goal.
The Red avenged the score four minutes later, however, when Senior Danielle Dunn tallied an unassisted goal — her second goal of the season. The Red was unable to take control of the game and 17 minutes later Colgate took the lead for good.
Once again, Schneider was the culprit, scoring another unassisted goal. The goal was her second of the game and the season. The Raider scoring was capped off in the 36th minute when junior Sarah McCarthy fired a penalty corner into the back of the net. Down by two goals, the Red made some changes and mounted a charge in the final 20 minutes of the game.
“Blair Corcoran did a solid job at midfield,” Hornibrook said. “We moved her up from defense in the second half and she really energized the attack. We had alot of good scoring chances and played much better on offense.”
After two consecutive losses, the Red will try a new approach in its next game with hopes of getting back into the win column.
“We need to make some changes before our next game,” Hornibrook said. “We have to keep this in perspective — one game does not make a season. We will reassess things. In the first game our attack was good; in the second game our defense played well. We still haven’t put it together yet. We’re a young team and the experience factor definitely showed tonight.”
Archived article by James Rich
Sun Staff Writer