The Quinnipiac Bobcats field hockey team defeated the Holy Cross Crusaders 2-1 on Tuesday afternoon in Hamden. During a scoreless first half, Angie King registered her NCAA leading 10th defensive stop this season.
Holy Cross (5-4-0) came out in the second half with a little more edge to its game, and forced the Bobcats to make great defensive plays. “Kudos to the defense today, I thought they did a nice job in terms of playing a man down a lot,” Quinnipiac head coach Becca Main said.
After the Bobcats (2-6-0) missed a scoring opportunity, the Crusaders turned the play the other way and sophomore Casey Considine smacked the ball past senior Quinnipiac goalkeeper Megan Conaboy.
That goal would be the turning point for the Bobcats. Main called a timeout after Holy Cross scored to regroup her team. “[Main] really just said ‘just got for it, and pick it up, play Quinnipiac Bobcat hockey and show them what we have,’” senior Haley Swartz said. “And I think that’s what we went out there and did.”
With 22:40 to play in the second half, the Bobcats looked rejuvenated and hungry to even the game up.
The Bobcats defense denied the Crusaders of another scoring chance and sent the ball up the field. The offense went on the attack, and after a couple of attempts to get the ball on goal, Swartz found the ball on her stick and sent the ball past the Crusaders’ freshman goaltender, Megan Inch, to tie the game with just over 19 minutes left.
Senior Savanna Reilly scored the Bobcats’ game-winning goal just five minutes later. It was another loose ball around the Crusaders’ net that was knocked home by Reilly for her second of the season.
“We worked as a unit and applied pressure really well,” Reilly said.
The Bobcats play twice more this week. First they travel to Hofstra (5-3-0) on Sept. 25, and then return to Hamden to take on Vermont (2-6-0) on Sept. 27.