College Field Hockey
Rider University 4, Appalachian State 3 (ot)
FARMVILLE, Va.?Freshman Michaela Franey took a pass from junior Tricia Crotty (Lewistown, Pa./Indian Valley) and scored four minutes into overtime to give Rider a come from behind 4-3 win over Appalachian State in a non-conference game on the campus of Longwood University Saturday afternoon. “It wasn't pretty but we will take it,” said head coach Lori Hussong.
“Kristy Kelly (Bethlehem, Pa./Freedom) made a great defensive save to setup the winning goal,” Hussong said. “The ball was right on the goal line and she swept it off to freshman Amanda Barretta (Roseland, N.J./West Essex). Barretta made a great one on one move and passed it to Crotty who setup the goal.” Kelly had two defensive saves in the game.
Franey (York, Maine/York), the Northeast Conference Rookie of the Week last week, is making an early bid for the award again with a goal and assist in the win. Franey leads the Broncs in scoring with six points.
“Tricia [Crotty] gave me a pass but it was at a weird angle,” Franey remembered. “I just shot it and it went in. Everyone was surprised that it went in. I knew I had to get a shot off because if you don't shoot it, you can't score.”
“This was a great win for us,” said Hussong who is in her eighth season at Rider. “We didn't play our best skill wise but we did give a great effort. The determination to get the job done was there.”
Rider senior Steph Walker (Lyman, Maine/Massabesic) got Rider (2-2) on the board just 6:23 into the game, picking up a loose ball in front of the cage. After the Mountaineers tied the game, Walker scored for the second time at 19:39 off a Franey assist.
“We've been working on being aggressive to get up early,” said Walker who now has 31 career goals, seventh highest all-time at Rider. Mebs (junior Caitlin Mebs, Cinnaminson) made a good free hit to setup the first goal and Michaela made a great pass for the second goal. It is really important that we experienced a game like today. We now know that we have it in us to fight back but we also know what we need to do to keep the lead in the first place.”
Tied at two at the half, the Mountaineers took the lead at the 43 minute mark before Bronc freshman Margaret Ecke (New Egypt, N.J./New Egypt) scored her first collegiate goal three minutes later.
“We didn't play our best at the beginning of the game,” said Franey. “We made some adjustments at halftime and we were determined to give a better effort in the second half. We didn't give up and we were determined to get the win.”
Appalachian State out-shot Rider 19-14, including 6-3 in the overtime period with senior goalie Jen LoCastro (Cherry Hill, N.J./Camden Catholic) making 12 saves for the Broncs.
The Broncs have won two straight games.
“We are happy that we won the game,” Hussong added. “It was a good experience that they were able to overcome some adversity of giving up the lead twice and kept plugging away to tie it and then win it. Even if you are not at your best, if you give your best effort, you have a chance to make good things happen.”
Rider stays in Virginia and plays Longwood University on Sunday.
“We want to clean up some of the things that didn't go right today,” Walker said. “We want to take the negatives and learn from them and take the positives and build on them on Sunday against Longwood.”
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