The Eastern University field hockey team needed a breakout game. In the wet, cloudy and dreary morning on Saturday, the Eagles found the cage early and often. The hosts took it to visiting Manhattanville 7-1 during the first of three games for Eastern athletics on Homecoming 2009.
Elya Troup started the offensive onslaught for the Eagles nine minutes into the first half on an unassisted goal that she pounded to the back of the cage off of a goalie deflection. Eleven minutes later, senior All-American Lindsey Moyer sliced through the Valiants defense for her first goal of the game, giving Eastern a 2-0 lead at the half.
After having played eight straight games decided by two goals or less, the Eagles jumped on the visitors almost immediately in the second half. Sarah Garber cut in front of the Manhattanville goal in enough time to redirect Kim Campbell's cross into the back of the cage. Six minutes later, Moyer picked up her second goal of the game, rifling a shot from the top of the circle through the defense, giving the Eagles a 4-0 advantage.
Eastern extended their lead to five goals when Troup picked up her second goal of the game with 26 minutes left to play. The Eagles started the play on a penalty corner, and after Garber's first shot was blocked, she passed across the front of the cage to Troup who knocked it into the corner. Manhattanville would not go quietly as Melissa Goncalves picked up the lone goal for the Valiants with 11 minutes left in the match up, making the score 5-1.
Following the Manhattanville goal, Moyer took over. With five minutes remaining, Moyer ripped another shot off of a penalty corner, but was deflected back into the circle. Kaitlin McGann quickly jumped on the loose ball and slipped it towards Moyer who charged the cage, and tapped the shot in to the left corner of the cage. To top off the hat trick, Moyer picked up a fourth goal three minutes later when Campbell fed her the ball while streaking toward the center of the circle. The All-American promptly stopped the ball and lofted it over the Manhattanville defense and over the outstretched arms of the goal keeper. The score remained 7-1 for the rest of the game.
"We really needed a game like this," said Eastern's head coach Camrin Azzarano. "We have been working very hard on not just taking shots for the sake of taking them. We want to take a well advised shot and it was nice to see that pay off for us this afternoon. It was also good to see Lindsey finally get going offensively."
The Eagles have no let up in their schedule over the next few days. Eastern continues their Freedom Conference matchups on Tuesday and Saturday. Tuesday the team travels to DeSales, and hosts King's on Saturday. In between, the Eagles will travel to Haverford College on Thursday. Both away matches are slated to begin at 4:00 PM, while the home match on Saturday will begin at 1:00 PM.
