Eastern University Field Hockey fell to TCNJ in the first of two regular season games scheduled on the super-fast Astroturf surface to prepare for potential postseason play. Coach Azzarano's squad traveled to the College of New Jersey to do battle with a very fast and talented Lion team ranked #5 in the country. The hosts got three spectacular goals from senior Ashleigh Pecherski to win the battle of unbeaten teams.
Pecherski opened the scoring in the fourth minute of the game when she took a pass from the right flank at the top of the circle and swept the ball into the upper left corner of the goal. The Eagles rebounded well and held the hosts scoreless for the remainder of the half. Eastern Goalie Kelly Garland stopped a Pecherski penalty shot to keep the TCNJ lead at 1-0.
The Lions controlled most of hte play in the opening frame, and Garland had to make six of her nine saves to keep the Eagles in the game. Coach Azzarano said of her goalie, "Kelly was fired up today. She made some outstanding saves. They had to make two incredible goals to beat her." The best Eastern chance of the half came in the waning seconds of the half as Stephanie Moyer cracked a low shot from the top of the circle that kicked off a Lion stick toward the upper right hand corner of the goal. TCNJ goalie Caitlin Gregory got her blocker on the ball to knock it out of play for an Eastern long hit. The Lions outshot the Eagles 12-2 in the opening frame.
The second half saw the play even out a bit as the Eagles began to adapt to the speed of the surface. Eastern earned three penalty corners in the second half, and had begun to push the ball into the Lion end with more regularity when Pecherski struck again in the 60th minute of the match. The senior forward batted a bouncing ball into the upper right corner of the net from the top of the circle to put the hosts up 2-0. Less than two minutes later the Lions struck again on a great pass from Jenny Lubin to Pecharski on the back post.
For the game, the hosts had a 24-4 advantage in shots and a 10-4 advantage in penalty corners. Coach Azzarano said of her team's effort. "We came out here to battle a very good team on their home surface. We can take a lot from this. We knew this would be a stiff test for our team, and it was. It will be interesting to see how much this experience helps us when we go to Ursinus next Thursday."
The Eagles return to action at home against Marywood on Saturday at 1:00 pm.
