NO TIME LIKE NOW
For the Sacred Heart University field hockey team, crunch time starts right now. Sitting at .500 in Northeast Conference play and hosting two teams ahead of them in the standings, the Pioneers need wins and they need them now. Looking at last year's NEC standings could prove instructive, as no team with more than three league losses qualified for the postseason. Taking that into consideration, SHU needs wins in three of its final four road games to give itself a chance of defending its NEC title. This weekend, the Pios host Fairfield on Friday and Rider on Sunday at Johnson Field in New Haven. SHU will honor its senior class prior to the start of Sunday's game.

LAST WEEKEND
SHU split a pair of games last weekend. On Friday, a 1-0 second-half lead got away on the road, in a 2-1 (OT) loss at Wagner. Back home on Sunday, Emma Brayford had a goal and an assist, while Hannah Fawle provided the fourth-quarter winner, as the Pios saw a 2-0 lead evaporate but then battled back for a 3-2 win at home against Towson. Brayford had five points on the week (2-1-5) as both she and Fawle earned NEC Prime Performer honors.

SCOUTING THE STAGS
Fairfield comes into the weekend red hot, winners of five in a row, a stretch that includes a scoring margin of 22-2 over its last four NEC contests. The Stags have allowed more than one goal in just three of their 12 games so far this fall. The team is surrendering just 7.7 shot attempts per game, and only 4.7 shots on goal. On top of the smothering defense, goalkeepers Emily Streib and Payton Rahn have combined for an NEC-best .786 team save percentage on the shots that do get through. Konni Hoffman leads the offense with 14 points (6-2-14).

PREVIOUSLY AGAINST FAIRFIELD
The two teams have been meeting annually since 2004 and Fairfield has enjoyed the better of the series lately, after it was relatively even through the mid-2000s. The Stags have won the last eight meetings between the two and 15 of the last 16 dating back to 2009. A year ago, Fairfield posted a 6-1 win on its home field, behind two goals apiece from Dominique Van Der Zee and Lucie Vincent.

SCOUTING THE BRONCS
Rider had lost three in a row, but then won a pair of games on the road last weekend, with a 3-2 NEC victory at Saint Francis and a 3-1 non-conference triumph at Hofstra. The Broncs boast one of the NEC's most-potent offenses, averaging 2.54 goals per game, which ranks second only to Fairfield. Rider is prone to giving up goals in bunches as well though, with a 2.23 team goals-against average, which ranks third-from-last in the nine-team league. Olivia Machiavelli paces the Rider offense with 24 points (10-4-24) through 13 games.

PREVIOUSLY AGAINST RIDER
It's another series with plenty of history, as the two squads have clashed annually since 1998. Rider has also enjoyed the better of this one recently as well, with three straight wins and victories in eight of the last nine, dating to 2015. At Rider last season, the Broncs came away 2-1 winners, after Willemijn Ephraim and Valeria Perales scored in the first half. Ally Frampton found a third-quarter goal for SHU, but the Pioneers were unable to equalize down the stretch.

UP NEXT
SHU is on the road for a pair next weekend, including an NEC matchup at Stonehill on Friday afternoon. Sunday will be a much shorter road trip, as the Pioneers visit Quinnipiac for a non-conference contest.