College Field Hockey
West Chester University 2, Rider University 1
LAWRENCEVILLE?Despite the first career goal from freshman Amanda Barretta (Roseland, N.J./West Essex), the Broncs dropped the 2007 home opener to West Chester Wednesday afternoon. “We knew that it could be a rough start having only four starters back,” said head coach Lori Hussong. “I thought we played a good first 15-20 minutes, then we got a little tired and West Chester took it to us.”
Barretta had a tip in at the top of the crease, off a pass from fellow rookie Michaela Franey (York, Maine/York) four minutes into the game and Rider (0-1) led 1-0 at the half.
“Barretta made a great play off the pass from Franey,” Hussong said. “We need to take advantage of more opportunities. The play was mostly in the midfield to our defensive end and if we make some clean defensive plays and push the ball out the pressure would have been off of us. Instead we stumbled with the ball and made mistakes in front of the goal and if you do that you can't win the game.”
West Chester (1-1) turned up the pressure on the Bronc defense in the second half, picking up nine penalty corners to one for Rider, finally tying the game on a high lob off a corner with 10 minutes remaining on a goal from senior Shelly Brooks.
“We got beat to every '50-50' ball, especially in the second half,” Hussong added. “It seemed that West Chester wanted the game more than we did.”
Brooks assisted on the game-winner with 2:42 remaining off another penalty corner with junior Jacki Eddy picking up the goal.
“When West Chester scored, they really turned it up a notch,” Hussong added. “It gave them new energy and we didn't take that as a sign to step up and hold on in a tied game. We rolled over and didn't play to our best at the end. I hope that we take what West Chester did and learn from it. We didn't play 70 minutes of hockey and West Chester is a type of team that will battle you for everything and they earned the win today.”
Looking at the recent history of the series, you knew it would be a close game as the last five games against the Golden Rams entering today were decided by one goal including an overtime game in 2004. Now it is six games in a row with each team winning three.
The Golden Rams out shot Rider 14-10 and held a 13-4 advantage in penalty corners for the game.
“It is a matter of pride,” Hussong said. “You can go out, put your best effort out there for 70 minutes and lose a game and I would have no problem with that. But we didn't do that, we battled for 15-20 minutes at the start, played hard in spots but we didn't put that complete game, that ?Rider effort' out there and that is what is disappointing.”
Rider travels to Durham, New Hampshire this weekend for a pair of non-conference games. The Broncs face Colgate on Saturday and New Hampshire on Sunday with both games at 2:00pm.
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