Photo Courtesy of Susquehanna Athletics
By Hayden Lange
The No.6 seeded Susquehanna field hockey team delivered an exciting 1-0 over No. 3 seeded Wilkes in the first round of the Landmark Confernce playoffs Saturday afternoon in Wilkes-Barre, PA.
The win advances the River Hawks ticket to the second round of the playoffs for the fifth straight year, as they have done so every year since the conference expanded it’s bracket to six teams.
Susquehanna got on the board early with the lone goal of the match after junior defender Kiara Koeller foundthe back of the net with 12:21 left in the first quarter.
Susquehanna was able to keep the lead throughout the game with great defense. The second quarter had shots by junior midfielder Asia Daskalakis and Junior Forward Jada Thompson, but they were both stopped by Wilkes goalie Chloe Gilroy.
In the third quarter, Wilkes applied pressure, but the River Hawks were able to keep the ball out of the goal. Senior Goalkeeper Taytum Lombardi stopped five penalty corners and six shots on goal to keep the lead.
In the fourth quarter, Lombardi and the defense kept the ball away from the goal. Thompson put up another offensive push to extend the lead, but Wilkes turned them all away.
“We played a really great game all around today. The defense created a lot of pressure which allowed us to keep the shutout,” said Lombardi.
Wilkes brought more offensive pressure late, but the River Hawks defense held strong to take home the round one win.
Koeller scored the only goal of the game early in the first quarter. Thompson led Susquehanna with five shots on the day, all of them being on goal. Lombardi played the whole game in goal and recorded six saves on the day to earn the shutout win.
“I’m really happy with how the team played. This was a game that we really wanted, and everyone showed up to play a really strong game today,” said Susquehanna head coach Allison Fordyce.
Susquehanna finished the game with 10 shots, seven of them being on goal. Wilkes put up 11 total shots with six of them being on goal. The River Hawks had four penalty corners while Wilkes had seven.
With the win, Susquehanna advances to the Landmark Conference Semifinals. They will travel to Washington, D.C. where they will take on Catholic University who holds the two seed on Tuesday at 7 p.m.