Field Hockey: Holy Cross 3, Elizabeth Seton 1

By Ryan Mink
rmink@digitalsports.com

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Holy Cross senior Maggie Davis thought she had the WCAC field hockey playoff system figured out before Monday’s game started. At least she’s hoping she did.

Even with Holy Cross hanging onto a one-goal lead late in the second half, Davis knew the Tartans needed one more goal to likely seal the WCAC regular season championship based on goal differential.

So with left than five minutes remaining, Davis delivered, scoring a backhanded goal to give Holy Cross a 3-1 home win Monday on Senior Day in what could be a preview of the WCAC championship game.

“My first instincts were to just hit it in to someone inside the circle,” Davis said. “I didn’t know it was going to go in, but I’m happy it did. I just aimed for the goal.”

Holy Cross is now 7-1 and Elizabeth Seton is 6-1 with one WCAC game remaining against St. Mary’s Ryken on Friday. If Elizabeth Seton wins that game, as expected, that would leave the Tartans and Roadrunners tied at regular season’s end.

The two teams split their season series as well. Just a week ago, Elizabeth Seton defeated Holy Cross for the first time in its program history in a second overtime shootout, thus earning a 1-0 win.

Thus, the deciding tie-breaker for the regular season championship is likely goal differential in the two teams’ two match-ups, which Holy Cross would win since it won 3-1 Monday and lost 1-0 last week.

“I didn’t know exactly, but I thought that might be the determining factor,” Davis said. “There wasn’t very much time left so we just knew we had to get it in.”

After a scoreless first half, Holy Cross senior Katie Slater broke the tie with a penalty stroke. Holy Cross was awarded the penalty stroke when a shot that would have certainly gone in his a Elizabeth Seton player’s leg, Holy Cross Coach Candy Thurman explained.

With the two teams battling through two halves and two overtimes of scoreless field hockey the last time they met, it seemed as if that would be enough. But Holy Cross had to win by two. The Tartans got another goal just four minutes, 16 later when Hayley Katzenberger redirected a Slater smack into the back of the cage.

Katzenberger, who missed last Monday’s game because she was on an official visit to the University of Florida, was a huge boost to the Tartans’ offense.

Elizabeth Seton wasn’t through, however. With five minutes, 51 seconds remaining in the game, senior Katie Rogers stuck in a hard shot that brought the score to 2-1 and once again leaving the Tartans short of the WCAC title by one goal.

Coach Thurman called a timeout and told her girls what she needed.

“I was kind of shocked when they scored the one,” Thurman said. “We called a timeout and I said, ‘You need to get down there and get a corner and you need to pull us ahead. You need to make sure you don’t give up any more goals and you have to score one.’”

Reminded of what was at stake, Holy Cross looked determined to knock one more goal in. And after a few quality chances, Davis took a pass from Slater and slid it into the left side of the cage for the Tartans’ third goal.

“She does a lot of stick work and she was kind of overdoing stick work and getting it caught just a little too much,” Thurman said. “I like them to be selective about using the reverse stick and that was a beautiful example of when to use it. That was a great shot.”