Helen Bradley
Staff Writer
A small, quiet crowd that attended the game last Wednesday definitely did not reflect the big win that the ESU Field Hockey team achieved.
On their last home game of the regular season, the Warriors defeated non-conference match-up Molloy College 6-2.
Senior, Kelli Shapiro, got the game going with a goal 1:47 minutes into the first half.
Shapiro sent a beautiful hard, long shot from the top of the circle that deflected off the pads of the opposition goalkeeper and into the corner of the cage.
The first half was dominantly ESU attacking, however, Molloy did present challenges at times with fast break-a-ways. Yet, the girls remained strong in defense and resilient through tough calls from the umpire.
Senior, Ashley Ceschini took the score to 2-0 in the first half with a goal on a penalty corner.
Senior, Makenna Marhefka, also added to the score at 16:20 minutes into the first half by tipping a cross-goal shot from Shapiro past the opposition.
Shapiro continued on with her strong attack, scoring another goal off a loose ball in front of the goalkeeper.
A time-out from Molloy gave them some aggressiveness and energy to keep fighting.
Yet, even with many of ESU’s underclassmen seeing field time, the Warriors still worked together and maintained their shutout.
The second half began strongly with Junior, Karly Conway, beating Molloy’s goalkeeper with a shot to the right side of the cage, raising the score to 5-0.
From here the game slowed down a bit with the Warriors becoming comfortable in their five-goal lead.
The game shifted slightly in style and saw more turnovers all over the field.
Molloy fought back hard though and did not give up, despite the high score.
Eleven minutes into the half, Molloy deflected a shot from the right base-line into the left corner of the cage, scoring their first goal of the game.
This fired Molloy up but the Warriors returned the fight with a second goal from Ceschini seven minutes later.
Three minutes later, though, Molloy pocketed another goal with the ball slipping past ESU goalkeeper, Maddie Richie, low on the left side.
This was the end of their scoring though, with ESU holding strong until the end of the game.
The Warriors outshot Molloy 29-3 and the win will lift them to a 15-3 record.
The Field Hockey team also played their last regular season game last Saturday on the road at Mansfield.
Despite the very cold and windy weather, the girls pushed through to finish with a strong 6-1 win.
The Warriors are now 16-3 and looking to the week ahead with PSAC playoffs beginning this weekend.
Currently, sitting second on PSAC rankings, ESU will travel to Westchester to play the winner of Bloomsburg vs. Shippensburg tomorrow, Friday, Nov. 16.
If successful, the Warriors will continue on the PSAC Championship on Sunday the 18th of November.
Make sure to continue to follow the field hockey girls as they battle it out during post-season!
Email Helen at:
hbradley2@live.esu.edu
