The Elizabethtown College field hockey team treated the home fans to a dominant performance on Wolf Field on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 12 p.m, defeating Wilkes University 5-0. It was a day headlined by the team’s seniors, as they were celebrated during the pregame festivities.
Junior forward Drew Bridges stole the spotlight that day and put on an offensive clinic. She fired off eight of the team’s 24 shots, eventually earning her first career hat trick in the three goal performance. Senior forward Riley Stephan also provided help on the offensive end, scoring a goal of her own. Sophomore Mia Fino was the other Blue Jay to find herself in the scoring column, scoring one late to clinch the Etown victory.
In the defensive half, it was a lights out effort from the Blue Jays. Senior goalie Angelina Giglio-Tos started the game and shut out the Wilkes offense in the first half. Fellow senior goalie Rachel Murphy took the field in the second half and preserved the clean sheet. Each keeper only had to make one save in their outing, thanks in part to a pesky Etown defense. The group would hold Wilkes to just four shots, three of which were on goal.
Etown started the game off on the right foot and never looked back. Six minutes in, Bridges snuck one past the Wilkes goalie and three minutes after that, she put another goal on the board for Etown. This would be all the scoring from either side until the fourth quarter.
In the fourth quarter, after a couple of Etown scoring efforts were stopped, Bridges scored another to complete the hat trick. They wouldn’t stop there. Their continuous ball movement created more opportunities, and Stephan would be the beneficiary this time. After the Wilkes goalie deflected a shot, Stephan quickly redirected it past the goalie for the fourth goal of the game.
Fino would cap off this complete offensive effort with Etown’s fifth goal with three minutes to go in regulation. She’d find herself open near the post and sophomore midfielder Hannah Long would serve up the perfect pass to give Fino an easy goal.
Giglio-Tos highlighted key takeaways from this performance that the team hopes to take into the rest of the season.
“As we move into our last few games, I think we will be focusing more on the things that worked and emphasize that, such as capitalizing on corners, communicating on and off the field, and being confident,” Giglio-Tos said.
With this win, Etown moves to 5-10. They will take on Goucher College on Saturday Oct. 26 in Baltimore, Maryland. at 1 p.m. for one of their final two games of the regular season.
