Dan Sherman
Asst. SID
Juniata College
814-641-3513
Huntingdon, Pa., Juniata College's field hockey team defeated Alvernia at home Wednesday night to extend their winning streak to seven games. After being nominated Landmark Conference Offensive Player of the Week, Sarah Bilheimer (Bethlehem, Pa. / Freedom) had another big game for the Eagles, scoring her first career hat trick to carry Juniata over the visiting Crusaders 4-2 in Knox stadium.
After giving up the first goal of the game halfway through the first thirty-five minutes of play, Bilheimer immediately drove the ball down the field, weaving through defenders to tie the game at one. Five minutes before the end of the first half, Alvernia scored again to retake the lead.
Ten minutes into the second half freshman Katie Alexander (Mifflinburg, Pa. / Mifflinburg) led one of many breakaways for the Eagles, but had her shot blocked by the goalie, who came out to meet her. Bilheimer had been running downfield alongside Alexander and finished the play to tie the game again. Four minutes later, Brittani LaFollette (Baltimore, Md. / Sparrows Point) scored her first collegiate goal to give Juniata a lead it would not relinquish. With two minutes left to play in regulation, Bilheimer added her third goal of the game on an assist from Allison Groft (Hanover, Pa. / South Western). Groft had also assisted LaFollette earlier and is now second on the team with five overall. Bilheimer, already the leader in assists, now leads the Eagles in goals after her performance tonight.
Head coach Caroline Gillich had a lot of praise for her junior forwards after the game, commenting on Bilheimer's play, "She's a forward that comes back as a mid and helps out so much on defense. She's not you're typical center forward, because she's willing to play the whole field. Fellow junior, Allie Groft just did a fabulous job playing. Wherever we needed things organized, we threw her. She's a great communicator and was really able to get everybody working on the same page defensively and offensively generating that attacking speed towards the goal." Overall, she felt, "Our forwards today began a little off, but once they started working closer together, shifting off of each other, they were generating attack with intense speed. So that was exciting to see because Alvernia always pushes us out. It really was a great game to have with so many more of our conference games coming up."
Julianne Jones (Middleburg, Pa. / Midd-West) continued provide strong play in the cage for the Eagles. After making a career high 10 saves against Scranton on Saturday, the senior faced four shots on goal and saved each one. "Jones shut them down today. The defense really turned it up in the second half, a lot of tight play. The defense really came together and was much more organized. Julie came up big from the left and the right side, with girls barreling in. She didn't have a ton of opportunities, but the ones she did she came up big on." She added that, "Kortney Showers (Aspers, Pa. / Biglerville) really started to own the middle nicely today. Offensively, she really worked the ball up the middle. Defensively, she came up with interception after interception. That was exciting to see. It was one of the best offensive and defensive showings that we've seen out of her at that center position. Alex Stroud (Ellicott City, Md. / Centennial) really showed through. We took her out for short breaks and she was able to maintain her top speed. It's always difficult to sub when you play a team at such a high pace. You have to be able to go from zero, on the sideline to sixty on the field. That's something we have to work on as a team, getting our subs up and intense going into the game.
