Dan Sherman
Asst. SID
Juniata College
814-641-3513
Huntingdon, Pa., Despite being outplayed for most of the match, Juniata College field hockey outlasted a tough Scranton team to claim their second win in Landmark Conference play on Saturday afternoon in Knox Stadium. The Eagles defeated the Royals by a 2-1 score in double OT in Scranton last season. Scranton is now 1-1 in conference play.
Despite trailing for nearly the entire game, the Eagles were able to persevere and battle through a hard fought game to claim the win. The Scranton offense was relentless, nearly spending the entire second half in the Juniata zone. From 52:51 to 66:24, the Royals had 10 corners in 14 minutes. Scranton managed to get off 10 shots during that span. Senior goalie Julianne Jones (Middleburg, Pa. / Midd-West) made three saves in that time period and 12 overall against a team that had outscored opponents 45-6 coming into the contest. Entering the day, Jones was 6th in the nation in save percentage and 11th in goals against. The senior played her heart out today, making huge saves down the stretch to keep her team in the game, several times preventing would-be goals from finding the cage.
Sarah Bilheimer (Bethlehem, Pa. / Freedom) had another strong day for the Eagles. The junior was all over the field and executed many fast breaks for Juniata. The forward moved the ball well for the Eagles and was constantly putting them in position to score. After the second half barrage of corners for the Royals, Juniata had one of its own. Bilheimer took it and the resulting play forced another Eagles corner. She again took the corner, passing to teammate Cassie Clarence (Coopersburg, Pa. / Southern Lehigh). Clarence had her shot saved, but Bilheimer was there for the rebound and shot the ball into the cage from the left side to tie the game at one all with 1:48 left in regulation. The goal gave her sole possession of second on the team with five. With zero seconds remaining on the clock, the Eagles were awarded four consecutive corners, but were unable to score again, sending them to sudden death overtime.
Both defenses continued their strong play in overtime, each team refusing to give in. Both teams went back and forth down the field, but were unable to put the game away, that is, until nearly five minutes into the second overtime when on another Eagles breakaway, freshman forward Katie Alexander (Mifflinburg, Pa. / Mifflinburg) assisted junior Allison Groft (Hanover, Pa. / South Western) for her team leading 7th goal of the season to end the match and send the Juniata crowd home happy.
Before overtime, Coach Gillich preached to her team about pride; playing with it and taking it into everything not just sports, but your lives, actions, and words. This was a game that came down to two teams playing with pride and her team's resiliency really pleased her this afternoon. Gillich said after the match that she lover her team's, "persistence to find a way to win this game. This wasn't our best overall team game. It was honestly more of our B game. We weren't really clicking well. It definitely wasn't our most technical, tactical game, but it came down to mental toughness and being able to find a way to keep the ball out until we were able to find a way to click on offense." Overall, the coach was, "really excited that we were able to hold it down, they went up on us early. We really were down for most of the game. It was pretty exciting to come back and then score the second one in overtime."
The Eagles advance to an 8-2 record and remain undefeated in Landmark Conference play. Juniata will look to add to its current six game winning streak at home on Wednesday as they host Alvernia in nonconference action. Game time in Knox Stadium is 7 pm.
