Hoboken, N.J. – Two Top-15 teams with stout defenses put their collective dominance on display Friday afternoon as No. 11 Stevenson outlasted the No. 14 Stevens Institute of Technology field hockey team, 1-0, at DeBaun Athletic Complex.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Sophia Cozza had a look in the first 30 seconds for Stevens (5-3) but the shot was kicked away by Stevenson (8-0) keeper Jordan Vradenburgh. The Ducks' backline held tough on a trifecta of Stevenson penalty corners in a 61-second span, with only one requiring the involvement of Stevens netminder
Natalie Ward.
After going on the defensive for much of the opening 15 minutes, Stevens turned things around in the second, generating three corners of their own and outshooting the Mustangs, 2-1. The third and final corner produced the best opportunity when
Lauren Flynn lofted a ball that had goal written all over it until a last-moment defensive save kept things scoreless heading to the half.
Both defenses remained locked in through the end of a third quarter that yielded zero shot attempts from either side, even with Stevens playing the final two minutes one player down.
Roughly five and a half minutes into the fourth quarter, off Stevenson's seventh penalty corner of the match, the Mustangs finally broke the ice, squeezing a shot past Ward and under the stick of Flynn by the far side post.
In the final 95 seconds, the Ducks generated two corners, but the lone shot from Flynn was again turned aside by Vradenburgh.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Stevens held Stevenson to just five shots, by far the Mustangs' lowest total of the season – the previous low had been 12
- The 10 total shots in the match were the second-fewest in a Stevens contest this year, topped only by the nine against Swarthmore. 22 (at Vassar) had been the next-lowest total.
- Friday marked the second 1-0 result for Stevens after playing no such matches all last season
UP NEXT
The Ducks head to Scranton for a 4:00 start with the Royals on Wednesday, September 30, the final match before the start of Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom play.
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