Photo courtesy Quinnipiac Athletics
By Matt Corso
Savanna Reilly scored her second goal of the game in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference field hockey semifinals on Friday night against Rider to propel Quinnipiac into its second championship game in three years. Lone behold, Reilly’s goal would be Quinnipiac’s last during its magical 2015 season.
Just two minutes into Sunday afternoon’s affair, Fairfield’s Ruth Smalbraak found a hole in the Bobcats defense and finished a great cross from teammate Ann Burgoyne.
At that moment, the Bobcats picked up the pace of their play and intensity. They outshot the Stags 12-to-nine during the rest of the game.
With just under nineteen minutes left in the first session, Lily Shemo rocketed a backhand shot from the left wing. Her shot went just wide. Quinnipiac continued its pressure and had countless scoring opportunities, including a shot off the post.
The Bobcats entered halftime facing a two-goal deficit following a Julie de Paeuw goal off a penalty corner late in the first half. But the Bobcats resiliency all season long kept their faithful optimistic. Head coach Becca Main’s squad had outscored opponents 15-to-five during the second-half this season.
Yet another issue arose in the second half. Quinnipiac had five penalty corner opportunities to Fairfield’s two and held an eight to four advantage the entire game and didn’t convert on a single one. Main was surprised.
“Obviously the finish wasn’t there,” she said. “Sometimes when you’re used to coming back from a one or two goal deficit you know you can, but we waited a little too long.”
In Main’s eyes, the Stags changed its penalty corner defense dramatically which forced the Bobcats to scramble deep in the Stags zone.
“You get eight corners, you expect to put one, two, or sometimes three in, so that’s probably where I think the game changer was for us.
Fairfield defenseman Erin Buckley anchored the Stags penalty corner defense all game en route to earning the tournament’s most valuable player.
Main called a pair of timeouts during an eight-minute, second-half stretch hoping to spark her offense, but little could be done. The Bobcats failed to score a goal for the first time since Sept. 4.
Their luck ran out. There was no more magic. The Bobcats will look to rebound next year as they aim for a third championship game appearance in the last four years.
And having yet to close the book on the 2015 season, Main’s already optimistic for 2016.
“It’s going to be a little different work for us I think, but you’ve got the spring [season] to do that. I am looking forward to the excitement of what we are going to see from the freshmen class.”
