Ball control was the name of the game for the Massachusetts field hockey team as it claimed its first conference win of the season against Atlantic-10 foe Saint Louis, 12-0, at Gladchuk Field Friday evening.
The 12 goals scored by UMass (3-3, 1-0 A-10) is a season high, as well as a school record – passing a previous record of 11, also against Saint Louis in 2013.
Minutewomen coach Amy Robertson was shocked when she found out the 12 goals were a new school record.
“It feels great, it was a complete and total team effort today,” Robertson said. “A lot of people came in, made contributions, I didn’t feel that we lost a step no matter who was in and it’s a good feeling.”
Leading 6-0 at halftime, UMass was riding high and had momentum on its side. After junior midfielder/forward Celina Hocks scored in with 19 seconds remaining in the frame. The Minutewomen outshot the Billikens 16-0 in the first half, and 29-2 for the entire game.
SLU (1-5, 0-1 A-10) started with the ball to start the second half, but senior forward Nicole Miller stole it and quickly dribbled the ball up the field. About 10 feet from the goal, Miller passed to Sarah Hawkshaw, who beat Saint Louis goalkeeper Jessie Bryan on the right side to put the Minutewomen up 7-0 less than one minute into the half.
This was Miller’s second assist of the game, but by the time it was all said and done, she had finished the game with four points (three assists and one goal).
Miller said there was nothing special about why she played so well.
“I’ve been playing field hockey since second grade,” Miller said when asked about her tricks. “I’m a senior now and I’m just putting everything I have out onto the field.”
Fellow senior Izzie Delario, however, garnered most of the attention. Delario scored three goals in this one – the most on the team – to push her total to four on the season.
She got UMass started early, scoring the first goal in the first minute.
In the first half, the Minutewomen started with the ball as Miller started with it on her stick and broke through a passive Saint Louis defense and gave Delario a well-executed feed at the front of the circle. Delario snuck the ball into the back of the cage at dead-center sending the Minutewomen fans and bench into an early frenzy.
According to Delario, one of UMass’s goals this season has been to start early and get on top.
Friday it was no different. The Minutewomen started early again, scoring three goals in the first seven minutes – one from Delario, another from Hailey Cockrum and the third from Hannah Farrell.
“That’s always our goal to come out strong and play the first seven, eight minutes,” Delario said. “I just think out attitude and our mindset is ‘let’s go get it’ and it’s what we did.”
Ten different players scored for UMass.
“Everybody rolled in, everybody got quality minutes and it was a whole team effort,” Delario added. “Our team, our culture is about every single player.”
One of them was freshman Rachael Burchell, who scored her first collegiate goal on a reverse shot into the top right corner of the cage after a scramble for the ball in front of the net.
Burchell took a shot on Bryan who stopped it and was credited with a save, but got her own rebound and scored.
As soon as she saw it go into the net, Burchell’s excitement showed as she jumped up and down and hugged her teammates.
“We saw how excited she was,” Miller said. “Everyone went up and hugged her.”
Coming off a victory like this, for most it’s tough to not get cocky. For Robertson, however, it may not be much of a problem.
“I’ve never been much of a person who focuses on records,” Robertson said. “I’m much more of a process person, it’s fun and I think it’s always cool to have a new achievement for the team, but at the end of the day it’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint.”
Zander Manning can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twiter @ZMSportsReport.
