HAMILTON — In a hard fought contest, Colgate succumbed to a strong offensive second half by American University at Tyler's Field Saturday on Senior Day.
The scoreless first quarter of action saw Colgate earn two corner opportunities from an American defense that had only allowed 71 penalty corners all season. The first corner of the quarter was awarded to American off a kick save from Colgate goalie Anna Unger. The defense held their ground and denied American's opportunity to score. Midway through the quarter, Colgate earned their first penalty corner from a long pass from
Carter Leahy into the circle where the foul occurred off the American defender. Leahy inserted to
Taylor Casamassa, whose shot was deflected well north of the box. The Colgate defense continued to play well coupled with solid saves and steady play by Unger to maintain the American University offensive drought. Colgate's second corner opportunity, which came late in the quarter, yielded an unsuccessful pass.
Less than two minutes into the second quarter, American's offense struck with a goal scored by Gaby De Kock. For the remainder of the second quarter, Colgate's defense held off American's aggressive offense, limiting them to just one goal entering halftime.
American charged hard early in the third quarter, earning three penalty corners within two minutes of play, but Unger saved the first of the shots and the defense snarled the other two. Unger continued to protect the net with some incredible diving saves until almost eight minutes into the quarter when American's Noor Coenen intercepted a pass and rifled a shot into the cage, earning her ninth goal of the season to move into second all-time for American in their record books and move American's lead to 2-0.
The fourth quarter started similar to the second, wherein American struck early and netted the third goal of the game on an assist from Imogen Hatton to the stick of Emily Horace who was on post and tapped it in to earn her first goal of the season. Colgate fought back the remainder of this quarter, earning two more corner opportunities in nearly a minute but was unable to connect on the first and on the second Taylor Casamassa ripped a shot that sailed wide by only a matter of inches. While Colgate continued to control the ball offensively this quarter, the Raiders were unable to score on an American defense that has only allowed three goals in Patriot League play all season. In the last minute of play, Casamassa sent a screaming shot at the goalie, and on the deflection, Ella Murphy just bounced the ball off the pipe to miss ending the game with a score.
Colgate ended the game with five penalty corners and held American to the same. Anna Unger had seven saves while American had a total of sixteen shots.
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach April Cornell-DeAngelis
"I am very proud of our team and how hard they played today. American is one of the strongest defensive teams in the conference as well as the country. American successfully marked our strongest players early in the contest, but later in play we were able to find open pockets and execute more of our game plan. Anna played a terrific game with excellent execution in her timing and movement inside the nine meter area, and that was coupled with our defense playing confident and steady. Today was a good testament of how our team believes in themselves and they were able to execute well against the top team in the conference. This year has shown great development of many of our younger players and that was aided by the strong leadership of our seniors. I really want to thank the senior class for their contributions that have led to the growth of the future of this program."
