Redhawks sink their talons into the Rams, 4-2
VCU first-year forward Lotje Aalderink dribbles past Saint Joseph's defender. Photo by Kayelyn Tate.
Marcus Leary, Contributing Writer
The VCU Rams field hockey team fell to the No. 8 ranked Saint Joseph’s University Redhawks in a tight defensive matchup, 4-2.
VCU is now 8-4 overall and 2-2 in the Atlantic-10 conference. The Rams are still fourth in the A-10 field hockey rankings, according to the A-10.
The Rams started the game off with possession but quickly lost the ball on a turnover.
The Redhawks offense advanced quickly to VCU’s half of the field, keeping the ball there for a majority of the first quarter.
VCU’s defense stayed aggressive, forcing the Redhawks to pass the ball around.
Saint Joseph’s fourth-year midfielder Sol Borensztein capitalized off a VCU foul at the six-minute mark of the first quarter by putting a shot past the goalie to put Saint Joseph’s up 1-0.
The Rams’ offense tried to answer back with a penalty corner with 3:30 left in the first period, but the shot from third-year midfielder Morena Macera was blocked by the Hawks’ defense.
Both defenses held strong for the rest of the first quarter, with neither team getting a shot off.
The second quarter started off similarly to the first, with the Redhawks passing the ball around the VCU defense.
The red and white threatened to go up 2-0 at the 8-minute mark of the second quarter, but the corner shot from Saint Joseph’s fifth-year forward Manu Ghigliotti went wide right.
VCU scored their first goal of the game with 3:37 left in the second quarter when fifth-year forward Skyler Padgett got behind the Hawks’ defense and scored one-on-one with the goalie.
The VCU offense continued to fight for the rest of the second quarter but wasn’t able to put any more shots in the back of the net.
Despite neither team being able to capitalize off of their corner shots in the first half, the Rams and Redhawks were tied 1-1 going into halftime.
VCU head coach Stacey Bean said there were some missed opportunities on the field.
“For us, it’s taking care of what we need to take care of,” Bean said. “Their goals came from our mistakes, rather than them being better than us.”
The first goal of the second half came 40 seconds into the third quarter with a corner-shot goal from Saint Joseph’s fifth-year midfielder Bridget McCormick.
VCU’s offense held possession of the ball in the third quarter, passing it around in Redhawks territory and threatening to score on back-to-back corner shots but missing both.
VCU second-year goalie Emma Clements held strong and saved two goals at the eight-minute mark of the third quarter.
The Redhawks offense continued to dominate until the very end of the third quarter when Ghigilotti sent a through ball to second-year forward Erika Culp who scored with 20 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
The Redhawks led the Rams 3-1 going into the fourth quarter.
The black and gold started the fourth quarter off with possession and held it on their side of the field.
The Rams scored their final goal of the game three minutes into the fourth quarter when Macera knocked in VCU’s first corner shot of the game, cutting the Redhawks’ lead to 3-2.
Macera said she believes her team will keep fighting no matter what the score is.
“We always keep going,” Macera said. “We don’t care about the scores, we always want more.”
Both teams exchanged runs until the Redhawks scored the last goal of the game with 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter when fifth-year back Julia Duffhuis scored off a corner shot to extend the lead to 4-2.
The Rams tried to push the tempo taking one more shot on goal.
The Redhawks fought until the very end to keep the lead, taking a shot with a minute left that was saved by Clements.
VCU will play against Saint Louis University at Cary Street Field on Friday, Oct. 18 at 3 p.m.
