Field Hockey Drops Decision to Colgate

Cornell field hockey can no longer boast of an undefeated record against Patriot League opponents this season as the Red was vanquished last night by the Colgate Raiders, 4-2, on a brisk fall evening at Schoellkopf Field.
Colgate (1-1, 7-6) junior midfielder Lauren Carey netted the game-winning shot with 12:52 left in the second half to give the Raiders a 3-2 advantage. Carey, the Raiders points leader with 16, scored an unassisted goal when she recovered the rebound off of Cornell (3-2, 6-4) senior goalkeeper Lizzie Goldblatt’s pads and rocketed it into the bottom right corner of the net from the top of the circle.
Cornell head coach Donna Hornibrook acknowledged it was Carey’s second goal of the game that proved to be most costly.
“When we got the goal to get back into the game,” Hornibrook said. “I thought we were playing pretty well. We had some good rushes up the field, but I think that third goal took a little bit of the wind out of our sails. I don’t feel it was a very good performance on our part. I think the effort was there, but I don’t think we were together as a unit. And, I give credit to [Colgate]. They played well. They played a very high pressure game with great intensity. Like I said, I think our effort was there, but I don’t feel like we were together mentally. We have had much, much better games.”
The Red opened the scoring when junior forward Brenna Gulotta ricocheted a shot off a Colgate defender’s stick into the back of the net after nearly 16 minutes of scoreless play.
“I was on the right side and I cut back to the stroke line for a ball,” Gulotta said. “And then I took it outside and basically swept it into the back of the net. And it went right between the pole and the goalie on the right side.”
However, the Raiders quickly tied the game at 1-1 nearly 3:30 later when Carey scored off a penalty corner. Carey’s first goal was set up by teammates senior Natali Plesniarski and junior Maddie Watrobski.
“I thought our first half was definitely better than our second half,” Hornibrook said. “We got the early lead which was good, but then they came back three minutes later [with a goal] and kind of took some of that momentum away. That’s been a little bit of a problem for us. [This] season we’ve had games where we’ve had the lead and after we score, we just can’t hold the lead.”
Both teams entered the second half knotted at 1-1. However, eight minutes after the break, Colgate senior forward Lauren Remkus took a pass from teammate Amanda Gilmore and punched it into the back of the net from point blank range.
“Those are by far the hardest shots,” Goldblatt said. “You’re not sure where the ball is coming from. “It happens. It’s up to the goalkeeper to actually save shots like that, but you know what, it happens. Colgate played great today. They’re definitely an intense team. They are aggressive and once they are in that circle they are always a threat. They’re really strong girls. They proved today why they’re a really good program.”
However, the Red did not surrender quietly. Junior co-captain Belen Martinez scored on a penalty corner. Martinez was assisted by junior Abbi Horn and sophomore Nathalie Appleton, tying the game at 2-2 with 18:46 left in regulation.
“I think it may have been deflected off the girl on the other team,” Martinez said. “It hit her stick and it went in. We actually weren’t supposed to do that play, but one of the players that was supposed to [be involved in] the play wasn’t in there. So, we made our own call.”
This was the final time the Red were not playing from behind as Carey scored the game-winning goal with 12:52 left to play and sophomore forward Katelyn Nerbonne sealed the victory for the Raiders with an insurance goal in the final four minutes of play.
Cornell maintained a slim 15-13 shots on goal advantage over Colgate, but the Raiders nearly doubled the Red’s number of penalty corners by a 7-4 margin. Goldblatt grabbed four of eight shots for the Red while Colgate goaltender Sarah Pedersen stopped seven of nine shots.
“We’re just going to take what we can from this game and prepare for Albany, which is our next game on homecoming,” Martinez said. “I thought it was a great team effort. We came at them hard. And we left all we had on the field. There’s only so much you can do. They were a good team.”