By Anders Jorstad – STAFF WRITER
The Pride field hockey team extended their winning streak to three games with a hard-fought 3-2 win over the UMass Lowell River Hawks.
The River Hawks, an ex-DII team on the rise since being instated to the America East conference, came into the game against Hofstra boasting a 5-1 record. The Pride, coming off two straight wins, was looking to end their home stand on a high note. And end on a high note is exactly what they did.
Hofstra came out of the gates with a lot of energy on offense, putting up 14 shots in the first half compared to just four for UMass Lowell.
“On a positive side, we are generating shots, and that is a whole team effort,” said head coach Kathy De Angelis. “On the negative part of that, we’ve got to shoot better and go back to basics.”
The Pride then got on the board around the 33-minute mark when Stella Schoen scored her sixth goal of the season, giving Hofstra a 1-0 lead heading into halftime.
Unfortunately, the lead would not hold for long as Torrie Huk got past Pride goalkeeper Carys Swan to tie the game at 1-1, just a minute into the second half. Five minutes later Schoen would put the Pride up again with her second goal of the game and seventh of the season, giving Hofstra a 2-1 lead.
Not long after, Madison Sauve dumped in her first score of her young career to give Hofstra a 3-1 lead at the 44-minute mark. Hofstra held the comfortable lead for a while until the 58-minute mark when Huk scored her second goal of the game to pull the River Hawks to within one. Hofstra would start playing the clock afterwards, trying to keep possession and kill time to prevent UMass Lowell from tying the game. They would succeed at this until the final minute of the game.
With time winding down and just a single minute remaining in the contest, UMass Lowell earned itself a critical penalty corner. The River Hawks were unable to convert however and time ran out, seemingly giving the Pride the victory.
Not so, however, as the referees ruled there was some contact during the previous penalty corner and gave the River Hawks one final corner with no time left on the clock. Hofstra plugged the goal with defenders to try for one final stop. The UMass Lowell inserter passed the ball out and the stopper found a wide-open lane for a shot. The stopper, caught up in excitement, missed the ball and had to run behind her to get it, giving the Pride defenders just enough time to clog up the hole in the defense, stealing the ball and securing a 3-2 victory for Hofstra. The Pride took a deep breath and celebrated the hard-fought victory.
The win pushes the Pride to 5-3 on the season while UMass Lowell falls to 5-2. Hofstra’s next contest comes against the Fairfield University Stags on the road on Wednesday. That game will begin at 3:30 as the Pride seeks a fourth-straight win.
