By Brandon Farren
Staff Writer
The Susquehanna field hockey team fell 2–0 to King’s College on Saturday, Sept. 8 at Sassafras Field in Selinsgrove.
The River Hawks totaled 17 shots, seven more than King’s, (1–2) but were unable to get on the board. Eight of those shots were put on net, all of which were saved by the King’s freshman goalkeeper Brianne Maluda.
Senior forward Kelly O’Keefe scored the first goal of the game for the Monarchs. The goal was assisted by senior forward Kelsey Gabriele.
In the second half, Susquehanna continued to outpace King’s in shots by a total of 10–5.
Despite being outshot, the Monarchs made the most of their scoring opportunities. Gabriele scored a goal of her own in the second half to give King’s its final goal of the day.
For the River Hawks, junior attacker Hunter Pitman had seven shots and junior midfielder Heather Casey added four of her own. Sophomore midfielder Vivian Simone finished third on the team with three shots.
The River Hawks bounced back with a 4–3 win over York College in overtime on Wednesday, Sept. 12 on Kinsey Field in York.
Susquehanna bested York in both overall shots with 24 and shots on goal with 15. York had 21 shots overall and 10 shots on goal in the contest.
Senior attacker Stephanie Sachs opened up scoring for the River Hawks (2–3) at the 17:48 mark with an assist from sophomore defensive player Gabby Martin.
York (1–3) answered late in the first half to tie the score.
Pitman scored with less than two minutes to go before halftime with a second assist from Martin to give Susquehanna the 2–1 lead.
The Spartans tied the game during the second half at 46:32 and then scored six minutes later to take a 3–2 lead.
Susquehanna battled back with a solid defensive stand within the last few minutes of regulation play. Sophomore Hope Woolway had a huge defensive save on a York shot and set up Pitman’s tying goal with just 28 seconds left to play.
In overtime, the River Hawks controlled the majority of the play and had a few scoring chances including a shot by Pitman.
Susquehanna was awarded a penalty corner with less than a minute to go in the first 10-minute overtime period. Time expired, however the River Hawks were able to play out the corner.
The initial pass off the corner came to freshman defensive player AJ Smith who sent the ball to Pitman.
Pitman sent a long pass across the offensive zone to Simone, who was on the far post. Simone redirected the ball into the back of the cage for the game winner.
The 4–3 win over York snapped a three-game losing streak for Susquehanna.
Pitman finished with two goals and Martin added two assists in the win. Junior goalkeeper Ronnie Green made five saves on the day.
“Although our team is working on a new formation, we have a ton of potential to shock the conference as we continue moving forward,” Pitman said. “Everyone brings something different to the table but as a whole, our team is extremely hard-working.”
Susquehanna will return to action on Saturday, Sept. 15 on the road against Ithaca College in the Lace Up 4 Pediatric Cancer awareness game.
Ithaca currently sits at 4–1 on the season with wins against Drew, Utica, Misericordia and Hartwick. Their only loss was to number-10 ranked Montclair State, who defeated them 2–1 on Sept. 1.
“It is only the beginning of the season and with that, I believe that we have the ability to really let our success do the talking once conference games start,” Pitman said.
Game time against Ithaca is at 2 p.m. at Higgins Stadium. The game may be postponed however due to impending weather from Hurricane Florence.
