HAMILTON – Three different goal scorers paved the way to Colgate's 3-0 victory over Bucknell in Patriot League action on Saturday night at Beyer-Small '76 Field.
Cara Schmidlein and
Maddie Cappillo netted their first collegiate goals – one in each half – to stake the Raiders a 2-0 lead.
Hannah Pinkus, Colgate's leading scorer for the season, added a final insurance goal down the stretch to secure the Raiders victory.
Grace Poncsak was once again lights out, as she finished with a season-high fives saves en route to her second consecutive clean sheet. Colgate's defense in all kept the Bison at bay all night, preventing the visitors from generating many offensive threats.
Schmidlein's goal was the only marker of the first half and it came with less than six minutes left.
Ruby Diodati sent a corner kick into the box,
Lauren Rougas from the far post headed a centering pass to Schmidlein, who finished the tic-tac-toe play with a header to the net.
Colgate found a breakthrough in the second half and scored on two of its four shots. Cappillo received a through ball from
Emily Amano and pocketed a long-range shot into the upper right corner of the netting in the 61st minute. Pinkus closed out the scoring in the 80th minute with a rebound strike in front of the net.
Poncsak recorded four of her five saves in the second half to preserve Colgate's second straight shutout.
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Lyndse Hokanson
"Every game is going to be a dog fight. We have to make sure we take care of the ones at home. We have a different bite to us on Beyer-Small, so it was good to see us score a couple goals and finally close a game out. We managed the game well for long stretches. I'm proud of the defensive effort. Shutouts are a team stat and from front to back we defended well tonight. We'll enjoy this one and then prepare for Navy here next weekend. We haven't forgotten last spring."
UP NEXT
Colgate remains home to take on Navy next Saturday in a rematch of the 2021 spring Patriot League championship. Kickoff from Beyer-Small '76 field is 1 p.m., with ESPN+ carrying the livestream.
