Lehigh University
Colgate
Lehigh stages furious comeback to down Colgate in OT
10/22/2005 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
Head coach Julie Mazer was elated following the victory. “At halftime, I challenged them to make plays out there for us. And what happened was, we decided to fight. We decided we were going to finish this game.” Mazer continued, “I’m just so proud of their effort. This is so fitting for the seniors to have a win like this today.”
Colgate got the scoring going at the 23:34 mark when Lauren Carey scored her fourth goal of the season off of a rebound to put the Raiders in front 1-0. Natali Plesniarski then added to that lead when she took a feed from Dana Shaner at the 26:49 mark and beat Lehigh keeper Meghan Gove to give Colgate a 2-0 lead, which would remain until halftime.
As the second half started, it seemed as though a different Lehigh team was on the field, as the Mountain Hawks out shot the Raiders 13-7 in the half and had six penalty corners to the Raiders three. Iannarone finally got Lehigh on the board at the 48:40 mark when she took a pass from Moira Garrity and pulled the Mountain Hawks to within one at 2-1. Lehigh continued to fight, playing an aggressive, physical style, but was running out of time. With just 52 seconds remaining however, sophomore Christy Smith took a lead pass from senior Maureen Harrington and scored her second goal of the season to send the Lehigh sideline and fans into a frenzy. The clock would then wind down and the teams headed to overtime.
In the overtime session, a penalty stroke was awarded to Dana Shaner just 1:10 in, as the senior went up against Gove, but hit the left post and gave Lehigh new life. The Mountain Hawks would take advantage as Iannarone took control of the ball on the left side of the field, made a move past a Raider defender and beat Colgate keeper Jacque DeMarco to give the Mountain Hawks the dramatic victory.
Lehigh was out shot 24-16 on the afternoon, and had seven penalty corners to the Raiders seven. Gove had a fantastic day in goal, not allowing anything in the second half or overtime, and finishing with 14 saves on the day. DeMarco ended the afternoon with four saves, Shaner led the visitors with six shots, while Iannarone unleashed a team-leading seven for the Brown and White.
Prior to the game, Lehigh honored its senior class of Chelsea Erdmanis, Melissa Fricke, Gove, Harrington, Iannarone, Mary Beth Kuenne and Mel Lepko. The young women’s parents joined each of them on the field for pictures and were presented with flowers from Mazer. Kuenne will unfortunately miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury, which she suffered in the Mountain Hawks game versus Rider on Wednesday evening.
Lehigh returns to action on Tuesday when the Mountain Hawks travel to
