After opening its season with a hard-fought win against the College of the Holy Cross March 7, the Boston University field hockey team continued its shortened season on the road against Lafayette College Sunday.
The matchup started out at a very slow pace — a single shot was recorded between the two teams in the first period, coming from BU senior fullback Alexis Pettisani, while the Leopards (0-2) did not get any shots off during the opening period.
Although Pettisani did get a shot during the first quarter, neither squad managed to get any shots on goal.
The defensive battle continued into the second quarter with only one shot coming from either squad again. This time, Lafayette senior forward Grace Angelella got her shot on goal, but it was saved by Terrier sophomore goaltender Caroline Kelly.
BU head coach Sally Starr said she was impressed with her team’s defensive performance, especially with limiting the opponent’s penalty corner shots.
“It’s been outstanding,” Starr said. “I think the one statistic that really says a lot about how well the defense is playing is the other team’s ability to get attack penalty corners … In the Holy Cross game we only gave up one, and in this game we only gave up one. So that’s great team defense.”
Fouls played a major role in this matchup for both squads in the opening half — BU (2-0) committed 14, while the Leopards recorded 12. In the Terriers’ previous game, they only committed eight fouls in the first half.
Despite the slow first half on offense, the Terriers came out firing at the 30 minute mark, scoring the game’s first goal a little more than six minutes into the third quarter. Senior forward Liz Ryan netted the goal for BU, good for her first of the season.
The Terriers’ 1-0 lead was short-lived, however, as Lafayette equalized with a goal of their own just about four minutes later with sophomore forward Tara Hamilton finding the back of the net for the Leopards.
Neither team scored for the remainder of the quarter, entering the final 15 minutes of the game tied at one. And that tie endured — both squads also went scoreless in the fourth quarter, resulting in overtime.
Similar to the beginning of the third period, BU came out firing again at the start of overtime and after freshman midfielder Madison DiPietro sent a shot wide, Pettisani was able to corral her own shot off and secure the game-winning goal.
Starr said she was happy with the hard-fought win on the road, especially against a team that was picked to finish ahead of the Terriers in the Patriot League in the preseason poll.
“I’m pretty proud of how we came down here,” Starr said, “and played really well against a really, really good team and came up with, I think, a huge win for us.”
Despite the victory for the Terriers, fouls continued to rack up throughout the game with the squad recording 24 by the end of the matchup, compared to 19 in the previous game.
Starr said she is not concerned with penalties, and this game was officiated better than the one against Holy Cross.
“I thought it was well-officiated, but I think it was called a little bit tighter than the Holy Cross game,” Starr said. “We like to play aggressively, and fouls are going to happen in a game of hockey.”
The Terriers will play again Saturday in their first game at New Balance Field this season against Colgate University, with game time slated for 3 p.m.
