By Emma Bynes
@emma_bynes4
Springfield College students have already watched one exciting crosstown battle for Springfield this fall, with the football team ultimately falling to Western New England in week one, 23-22. Field hockey reflected a similar theme tonight, giving up two second half goals to the Golden Bears that resulted in a 3-1 loss.
With rainy weather inbound and an overall dreary feeling around Springfield, it was crucial for the Pride to score early on to cut out an advantage tonight. They did just that — when shortly over halfway through the first quarter Springfield earned a penalty corner. Senior Nicolette Morlock gave the ball straight to first-year Clare Moore, who took the ball herself to the right side and rifled one past Golden Bears goalie Alex Tardugno.
Springfield’s leading scorer Rachel Simkewicz was green carded and left the field for two minutes before the quarter ended, but the Golden Bears still could not capitalize on Springfield’s disadvantage.
With Western New England maintaining possession of the ball for a majority of the second quarter, Springfield’s defense would be charged with stopping the Golden Bears attack.
First-year goalie Sam Orcutt made a crucial save on the first of the visitors three penalty corners in the quarter, careening the ball out of bounds. The Pride had an opportunity to score immediately after but made some key errors, returning the ball back to the Golden Bears. Simkewicz took the ball back and drove upfield alone from the 30 yard line. Tardugno made the save as the Golden Bears attacked Orcutt’s half of the field.
Another defensive stand, this time led by Morlock, eventually leading to a Western New England corner. The Golden Bears’ Tessa Ebreo scored, but this crucial play was negated because she was outside of the circle, and more solid defense from the Pride held the score at 1-0 entering the half.
As the lights grew brighter to start the second half, the energy on Springfield’s side of the bench seemed to dim until Hailey Gaydos earned the Pride a penalty corner. Despite making a clear effort to maintain possession of the ball to start the quarter, the Pride were unable to secure a score.
Springfield finally created a quality opportunity as Simkewicz connected with her fellow first-year, Maggie Horn, but the shot went wide left of the goal.
Eight minutes into the second half, Western New England earned another penalty corner — which got deflected by Morlock. The senior went down on the play but remained in the game for another penalty corner, where the Golden Bears’ Ebreo finally got her goal to tie the game at one all.
In the early stages of the fourth, Springfield once again failed to keep the ball within its possession. As members of the Pride tumbled over on defense, Mikayla Mrzywka took advantage of the confusion and gave the Golden Bears a path to victory by slotting one past Orcutt.
Shortly after the Pride earned two penalty corners, but missed both opportunities. A lone Golden Bear took the ball and dribbled upfield, but Orcutt made a solo save to hold the score at 2-1.
“A big part of keeping my head in the game when I’m not being directly involved is making sure I’m talking to my team,” Orcutt said. “Corners are definitely a mental game, because I’m the last line of defense. If it gets past me, it’s on me”.
The Pride arguably had their final chance of the night at an equalizer, when sophomore Emma Kibbe looked for Gaydos, but the pair did not connect.
With hope of a win dwindling for Springfield, Mrzywka scored on another penalty corner to add crucial insurance for the Golden Bears. Springfield ended the night with its seventh corner chance — failing to draw the game closer than 3-1.
The Pride fell to 5-3 on the season ahead of a NEWMAC matchup at WPI, who knocked Springfield out of the NEWMAC tournament last season, on Saturday, Sept. 27.
Photo by Emma Bynes/The Student