By Nick Place
The Hofstra field hockey team rode a surge of five unanswered goals in the first half of Saturday’s game to an 8-4 victory over the Missouri State Bears.
After first-time starting freshman goalkeeper Amanda Heyde gave up the game’s first score to Missouri State senior Sarah Johnson, the Pride rallied and scored five straight goals including one by team captain Brit Blankmeyer with 12 seconds left in the half. That period-ending goal would be the first in Blankmeyer’s hat trick, the first in her career.
The five-goal burst dealt the Bears a blow from which they would not recover, even as Hofstra substituted heavily in the second half. Hofstra’s offensive onslaught slowed down in the second half as Missouri State’s picked up, but the team’s 3-3 split of the second-half scoring preserved Hofstra’s first-half rampage.
“Our attack has been really strong,” Pride head coach Kathy De Angelis said. “We have tremendous speed.”
Five Hofstra players scored goals in that attack, including two from Charlia Warner and the hat trick from Blankmeyer.
De Angelis credited much of that attack to freshman Genna Kovar, who, despite not scoring any of the Pride’s eight goals, spent much of the game sprinting up and down the field, setting up shots for her teammates.
Hofstra’s head coach attributed the second-half slowdown to a problem with conditioning. “I think we’re still working on fitness,” De Angelis said. “When you’re not fit, it’s easy to break down in the mental aspect of the game.”
The win puts the Pride’s record at 3-1 for the season, heading into Sunday’s game versus Fairfield.
After splitting time with sophomore Krisha Giammarco in last week’s loss to the University of Albany, Heyde took on full-time goalkeeping duties against Missouri State and put up 10 saves against the Bears’ 14 shots on goal.
“Heyde did an excellent job,” De Angelis said. “She registered 10 saves which is really, really high.”
Despite her satisfaction with Heyde’s performance, De Angelis said that both goalies would continue to see action.
“Since preseason, we’ve been platooning both goalkeepers in and out,” said De Angelis. “I think she had a great game, but nothing’s every really set with goalies, especially early in the season.”
Heyde was able to hold Missouri State star Melissa Lantz scoreless. Lantz was one of the NCAA’s top scorers before Saturday’s game with 7 goals.
The freshman goalie said she was not rattled when she gave up the game’s first goal; the hard part came when the Pride’s offense completely took over the game and left her out of much of the action.
“Any time you get scored on, it’s not what you do then, it’s what you do after,” Heyde said.
“It’s hard if you don’t touch the ball for a while, to keep focus, but I keep talking to the defense, letting them know I’m back there.”
Missouri State opened the scoring with a goal from Johnson with 20:02 left in the first half. Hofstra midfielder Amy-Lee Levy answered for the Pride a minute and a half later when she knocked in a shot from forward Warner that had careened wide left.
The goal opened the offensive flood gates.
Warner would score a goal of her own when Kovar sped down the middle of the field in a footrace with a Missouri State defender before dishing it off to a waiting Warner on the outside of the circle.
That score was followed by goals from Erica Suitch and Ashleigh Daniels. The Pride ended the first half with Blankmeyer’s first of three scores.
Seven and a half minutes into the second half, Missouri State forward Stephanie Chase hit a shot to bring the Bears within three. A little more than a minute later, Hofstra’s Warner answered with her second goal to put the Pride up 6-2.
Missouri State’s Alyssa Hile and Johnson would score a goal each in the rest of the second half, but the last two-thirds of Blankmeyer’s hat trick preserved the Pride’s 8-4 victory.