Sept. 17, 2006

Final Stats

Durham, NH - Senior Colleen Carney (Yorktown Heights, NY) scored the game winner at 1:53 of overtime and sophomore Carisa Eye (Nesconset, NY) recorded her third hat trick of the season to lift the Sacred Heart University field hockey team to Sunday afternoon's 6-5 non-conference victory against the University of New Hampshire at Memorial Field.

With the score tied 5-5 at the end of regulation, the Pioneers generated pressure early in the overtime session, and it eventually resulted in a penalty corner. Katie Bohren (Hopwell Junction, NY) stopped the ball at the top of the circle for Carney, who touched the ball forward and fired a low blast into the left side of the cage to end the game at 71:53.

The wide-open, high-scoring game featured four ties but just one lead change. UNH controlled play in the first half of the opening stanza and took a 1-0 lead at 21:32 when Shauna Sellenger, in the middle of the circle, tipped in Hannah Colestock's shot from the top.

Sacred Heart called time out and responded almost immediately, however, as Eye gathered a long entry pass from Bohren and fired a shot from the right side inside the far post at 23:57. Play evened out the remainder of the half but UNH regained the lead, 2-1, when Emily Colton scored at 27:32. Her initial shot at the right post was stopped by Pioneer goaltender Ashley Del Greco (Merrimack, NH), but Colton lifted the rebound over the goalie for the goal.

SHU evened the score 2-2 at 36:57 when Eye netted the second of her three goals by pulling the ball around Shute and firing a shot into the open cage.

New Hampshire took its third lead of the game, 3-2, at 41:19. Colton's initial shot from the center of the circle was stopped by Del Greco, but Sellenger scored on the rebound at the left post. That duo combined again just 3:19 later to extend the advantage to 4-2 when Sellenger's backhand centering pass from the right side was swept inside the left post by Colton.

Sacred Heart scored three goals in less than four minutes to grab its first lead of the game. Eye ignited the spark when, standing in a crowd, she redirected Bohren's long hit into the circle at 47:30. Freshman Kelsey Zeyher (Poughkeepsie, NY) tied the score 4-4 at 50:48 by scoring off a rebound at the left post, then Caitlyn Smith (Greenland, NH) struck at 51:26 on a rebound at the right post to put the Pioneers in front. It was the first career goal for both players.

The Wildcats scored off a penalty corner to pull even at 57:05. Sarah Craigue initiated the sequence with a hit to the top for Kara Napolitano who in turn passed the ball to the left post for Craigue's redirection into the cage.

Wildcats' goalkeeper Margaux Shute was credited with five saves, four of which came in the second half. SHU goalie Whitney Mills (Harrisburg, PA), who entered the game with her team trailing 3-2 at 41:20, earned the win with two saves and two goals allowed in 30:33 of relief action. Del Greco made seven saves.

The Pioneers are back in action Sunday when they open their Northeast Conference schedule against Monmouth at Campus Field. Game time is 1:00 pm.