RICHMOND, Va. – The American University field hockey team headed to Richmond on Friday evening to take on the Richmond Spiders. Forced into overtime for the second contest in a row, resiliency helped the squad push forward, and a goal from
Charllene Boshoff off a penalty corner in the 68th minute would give the Eagles the 2-1 golden-goal victory.
QUOTES FROM COACH JENNINGS
"We are very happy to get our first road win of the year against a talented Richmond team. We struggled to play our style for much of the game but in the end, we were able to make the critical play in overtime to seal the win.
"We always take pride in learning lessons from wins and know we will use this opportunity to grow for Sunday's match against Liberty."
QUICK NOTABLES
- Rebecca Bonness opened the scoring in the contest. It was the first of her collegiate career; she's accumulated two assists and five shots on goal in her time with the Eagles.
- Boshoff was in her first game back with the Eagles this season, returning from her home country of South Africa where she was trying out for the national team. This is her first goal this season, and the 12th of her collegiate career.
- With the result, Jennings is five shy of 300 career wins as a head coach with 295.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- In the first period, the Eagles started out with intensity, putting up three shots to the Spiders' nil. All three of AU's shots were on target, forcing the home keeper to make two saves.
- In the tenth minute, Kaleigh Missimer was able to intercept a pass in the midfield before sending it up to Emma Guydish. Guydish, who then sent a service pass straight across the face of the goal, found Bonness who rounded the keeper and sent it in to put the Eagles up 1-0.
- Neither team was able to find the back of the goal in the second period, but Richmond outshot the Eagles 5-1 in the frame, forcing Underwood to make two saves. The Eagles held their one goal lead into halftime.
- Coming out of the break, the Spiders stayed on the front foot, putting one shot on frame in the first ten minutes of the third.
- In the 34th minute, Richmond gained an advantage when Sophie Willemse was shown a green card, but the Eagles, with 10 players, were able to fight off any negative result from the card.
- With three minutes left to play in the third, and both teams at equal strength, Richmond equalized on a ball that was sent in from the top of the circle that went over Underwood into the goal and the game was 1-all.
- At the start of the fourth, Richmond was outshooting American 7-4 overall, and 4-3 in shots on goal. With four minutes left to play, the Eagles gained an advantage when a Spider was given a green card, but the crew was unable to capitalize on it.
- When the horn sounded to signal the end of regulation, the two sides were still knotted 1-1, and the Eagles would head to overtime for the second contest in a row.
- Richmond had a 5-2 advantage over American in corners through four periods of play and had added another shot on target to lead 5-3 in shots on goal through 60 minutes.
- In overtime, the Spiders struck first when Alexandria Lavelle had two shots back-to-back, the first of which was blocked and the second ended up going just wide of the frame.
- A penalty corner earned by Jordan Reicher six minutes into overtime was what turned the tides.
- Megan Hoffman took the corner, and the ball was controlled just outside the circle by Tayla-Jade Weiss, passed off to Boshoff, and the fifth year left no doubts when she slammed the ball into the back of the goal to give the Eagles the 2-1 overtime victory.
UP NEXT
- The Eagles squad will be back on the road, taking on #14 Liberty University on Sunday, September 3 at 1 p.m. In this contest, goalkeeper Bryn Underwood will face-off against her twin sister, midfielder Reagan Underwood.
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