MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – A last-second equalizer and an overtime goal led No. 1 Middlebury College to claim victory over the No. 9 Amherst College field hockey team on Saturday afternoon at Peter Kohn Field.
Amherst leveled to 3-2 on the season and 1-2 in NESCAC play, while Middlebury remained unbeaten at 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the conference. The Mammoths will return home to play MIT on Wednesday, when they'll face off against the Beavers at 6:30 p.m. at Hill Field.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS:
*After a back-and-forth opening eight minutes, the Mammoths got on the board first as junior
Maya Harrington sent a powerful pass from the top of Amherst's circle down to the open sprint of junior
Chloe Agopian into Middlebury's own circle. With a one-on-one chance against goaltender Izzy Redzic, Agopian took a touch to the left, then fired into the back of the net.
*Middlebury threatened to equalize nine minutes into the second quarter with a string of three penalty corners. On their second set piece, senior Grace Keefe sent a shot towards the left post, but a block from sophomore
Katie Savino and a sliding save from sophomore goaltender
Kate Grady kept the Panthers scoreless.
*The Panthers had another scoring opportunity one minute later as sophomore Emma McCann stole the ball at the top of the circle and dribbled toward the goal, but her shot careened just wide of the left post.
*Keefe notched the host's equalizer just over a minute into the third quarter. Set up on a penalty corner, sophomore Emma McNealy sent a no-look pass at the top of the arch to Keefe, who fired the ball past a web of players into the left corner.
*Sophomore
Emily Huehn regained the lead for the Mammoths on their own penalty corner with just under thirteen minutes remaining in regular time. After senior
Justine Liguori passed the ball across the arch to Huehn, the forward powered the ball into the right corner of the frame to make it 2-1 for Amherst.
*Grady continued to protect the Mammoths from between the posts deep into the fourth quarter as the goaltender swiped away a scooping Middlebury shot with 45 seconds remaining.
* With under two seconds on the clock, Keefe collected the ball at Amherst's right post and shot through a tangle of players into the left side of the net to send the match to overtime.
*Three and a half minutes into overtime, Aiello made a diving save, which Grady then followed up with by making a sliding save of her own to keep Amherst's hopes alive.
*Middlebury found its golden goal four minutes later as Keefe found junior Claire McMichael at the right post, who tapped the ball into the frame to win the game for the Panthers.
BY THE NUMBERS:
*Middlebury held the offensive advantage, leading 18-4 in shots and 14-4 in penalty corners against the Mammoths.
*Grady made 9 saves across 68 minutes in goal for Amherst, while Redzic made 1 save across 66 minutes.
