WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS. — It took a little while for the Williams field hockey team to finish off a scoring opportunity Tuesday night, but once it did, the Ephs had a hard time stopping, posting a 7-0 shutout victory over visiting Smith College on Williamson Field.
The Ephs improved to 3-1 with the victory while Smith fell to 1-4 on the season. Williams will host Wesleyan Saturday at 12 p.m. in s conference match-up.
"It ws a great effort tonight from start to finish," Ephs' head coach
Alix Barrale said. "We played with intensity the entire 60 minutes, and there was no let up regardless of who was on the field."
Juniors
Shea van den Broek and
Emily Batchelor, along with first year
Molly Hellman, each scored two goals while
Catherine Torres contributed two assists in the victory. Sophomore
Payton Ahola scored the Ephs' final tally.
The Ephs controlled play throughout, and just a little over two minutes in the Ephs' Hellman challenged Smith goalie Coco Cornell with a shot from in close that Cornell was just able to make a save on. Williams had several scoring opportunities in the first nine minutes, but could not finish those chances. But at At 9:08 the Ephs tallied the only goal they would need on the night when Hellman executed a takeaway and with a nice backdoor pass set up van den Broek for a goal. Just 22 seconds later van den Broek scored her second goal when she was able tip in a ball out of a scramble in front of the net. She then helped create the Ephs' third goal of the game at 11:32 when she passed forward to Torres who then connected with
Emily Batchelor for the Ephs' third goal of the first quarter.
The Ephs threatened one more time in the first period when off a penalty corner at 12:02 a shot by
Liz Scarcella was tipped wide.and led 3-0 at the end of the first period and they got off 13 shots with 10 of those shots being on goal. The Pioneers had trouble generating offense and did not register a shot in the first period.
"Obviously, scoring three goals in the first quarter was important," Barrale said. "I think once we scored that first goal, it gave us the confidence to be able to finish our chances. We executed our game plan effectively, we wanted to put pressure on the ball and play at a fast pace. I thought we did that very well, and also we really supported each other, they have a lot of speed and we were able to deny their forwards opportunities to use it against us."
Solid defensive play by the Pioneers Coco Cornell and Kaeli Bennet at the beginning of the second period denied the Ephs twice. Hellman made a steal and with a couple of smooth moves was able to come in on goal and score on a shot between the legs of the goalie at 26:08 boosting the Eph lead to 4-0. At 29:05 Torres slid a pass to Batchelor who cranked a laser into the net to make the score 5-0 Williams. At 30:35
Molly Hellman stole the ball and with a few nice dekes and finished between the goalie's legs.
In the first half Williams had 18 shots and 13 were on goal. The Pioneers did not record a shot on goal in the first half. At 30:35 of the third period
Liz Scarcella passed the ball across the crease to Hellman who scored to put the Ephs up 6-0. The final Eph goal came from
Payton Ahola who rifled a shot to the left of the goalie for a goal at 44:06.
Cornell finished with 13 saves for th Pioneers, while
Gates Tenerowicz played all 60 minutes in goal for the Ephs but did not need to make a save.
