AMHERST, Mass. – Down 3-2 with 20 minutes left to play, the No. 15 Amherst College field hockey battled back and tallied three unanswered goals to defeat NESCAC and Little III rival Williams College, 5-3, Saturday afternoon at Gooding Field. 

With the win, Amherst improves to 4-2 overall and 1-2 in league play, while Williams falls to 3-3 on the season and 1-2 in NESCAC action. The Purple & White return to the turf with a midweek game on Gooding Field versus MIT on Tuesday, Sept. 27 at 7 p.m., while the Ephs travel to Bates for a 1 p.m. tilt on Sept. 25.

Four goals were scored between the sides in a fast-paced first half between the archrivals, with the score knotted at 2-2 heading into halftime.

Amherst struck first, taking a 1-0 lead 11:22 into the outing. Getting behind the Eph defense to earn a 2-v-1, senior Mary Margaret Stoll sent a near perfect pass across the circle to fellow senior Sara Culhane on the left side of the field. Ripping a shot on goal, Williams' goalkeeper Margaret Draper got a piece of the ball but it would trickle past her and over the goal line.

Following ten minutes of shot-less action, Culhane nearly doubled the Purple & White lead with 21:20 on the clock as she put a point-blank shot on goal, but the netminder was up to the task and made a diving save.

Williams evened the score in the 27th minute behind the run of Alex Bennett. Collecting the ball near midfield, Bennett sprinted down the center of the turf and sent a ball towards net that found the stick of Libby Dolan on the left side of the goal and was redirected into the netting.

Regaining the lead on their next shot of the game, Amherst claimed a 2-1 edge at the 32:05 mark on a unassisted tally by Shannon Tierney '19. Racing down the right sideline, Tierney fired a shot from just inside the circle over the head of Draper and into the top left corner of the goal.

With 42.1 seconds remaining on the clock before halftime the Ephs would even the score at 2-2, as Bennett ripped a shot from near the stroke-mark just out of the range of Amherst goalkeeper Emily Horwitz '17 and into the lower right hand corner of the net.

Bennett continued her strong play for the Ephs into the second half, almost notching a score two minutes after intermission after earning a breakaway. Dodging the Purple & White goalie with a tight spin, Bennett put a shot on goal, however Kendall Codey '19 was just able to regain positioning and registered a defensive save.

Williams took its first and only lead of the game in the 49th minute after drawing a penalty corner. Collecting the insertion pass, Kit Rosen blasted a shot towards goal that deflected of the stick of Meredith Wright and over the goal line.

Responding almost immediately, Amherst knotted the game at 3-3 less than a minute later as Culhane logged her second goal of the game for the Purple & White. Gathering the ball on the right sideline, Laura Schwartzman '20 sent a quick shot towards net that ricocheted off the stick of Culhane and tucked inside the right post.

A Purple & White timeout with 9:33 to play proved to be the strategic success for Amherst, with Stoll scoring the game-winner a minute and a half later at the 61:54 mark. Following an Amherst corner and back-to-back saves by Draper, Stoll corralled the ball in a scrum in front of the goal and sent the ball into an open net.

Culhane notched her team-leading eighth goal of the season and third goal of the game with 4:36 remaining on the clock, tipping a shot from the top left of the circle by Caroline Fiore '18 into the netting. Culhane's three-goal game marks the fifth hat-trick of her collegiate career.

GAME NOTES

• Amherst held a dominant edge in both shots and penalty corners, 19-9 and 11-4, respectively, including a 13-3 advantage in shots and 7-1 advantage in corners in the first half.  
• Horwitz (4-2) registered three saves in the winning effort in between the pipes for the Purple & White, while Margaret Draper (3-3) made 10 saves for the Ephs in goal.
• Culhane led all players in shots on target with six, while Elizabeth Turnbull '18 and Fiore each added three shots on frame apiece.
• Bennett led the Ephs in shots and shots on goal with five and four, respectively, while Meredith Wright put two shots on target. 

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• With the win, Amherst moves to 11-10 overall against Williams since head coach Carol Knerr took the program's reins in 2001, including a 8-game win streak dating back to the 2010 season.