Strong Second Half Lifts Clark Over Field Hockey

THE BASICS:

-Score: Clark University 5, Elms College 0

-Record: Clark University (4-4), Elms College (2-6)

-Location: Worcester, Mass. (Granger Field Hockey Complex)

-The Lead: Four different Cougars scored in the Clark University Field Hockey team's 5-0 victory over the Blazers of Elms college on Tuesday evening.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

-The first half of the game was scoreless despite Clark out-shooting the Blazers 18 to three.

-Elms goalkeeper, Jillian Lapponese (Enfield, Conn.) posted 10 saves in the first 35 minutes of play.

-The Cougars came into the second half firing quickly with a goal from Chase Collier(Lisbon, Maine) after Olivia Barksdale (Fort Washington, Md.) found her in the circle just 40 seconds into play (1-0).

-Five minutes later the Cougars struck again. Clark was awarded a penalty corner and Cheyanne Zappala (Laconia, N.H.) launched a hard shot past Lapponese for the 2-0 lead.

-The Blazers held the Cougars off on three more penalty corner attempts, but the Cougars were able to capitalize on the fourth corner with 12 minutes on the clock. Kaitlyn Deblois (Turner, Maine) collected an insert pass and dished the ball off to Zappala who fired her second goal of the day to the back of the Blazer's net (3-0).

-First year forward, Anna Joyce (Hopkinton, Mass.) notched her first goal as a Cougar as she chipped a shot to the top left shelf to extend Clark's lead to 4-0 with under ten minutes to play in the game.

-The home team never let up the pressure and was awarded their 12th and final corner of the game with 13 seconds ticking off the clock. After time had expired, Barksdale inserted the ball to the top of the circle. The ball found freshman Mackenzie Stewart(Pomfret, Center, Conn.) following a scuffle in front of the net. Stewart pushed the ball past Lapponese to tally her first collegiate goal for the final 5-0 victory.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

-The Cougars outshot the Blazers 36 to seven and were awarded 12 corners to the visitor's one.

-Lapponese made and impressive 15 saves in net for Elms.

-Dani Michaud (Providence, R.I.) improves to 4-4 on the season and made two saves in 42 minutes of play. Katie Crowley (Bolton, Mass.) came in and played 28 minutes for the Cougars and made two saves.

UP NEXT:

-Clark hosts Becker College on Thursday, Sept. 28th at 6:00 p.m.

-Elms heads to Anna Maria College on the same day for a 7:00 p.m. game.

Source: (Clark University Athletics)