Dan Sherman
Asst. SID
Juniata
814-641-3515
Selinsgrove, Pa., The theme of the season so far for the Eagles has been dramatic victories and Juniata continued that tonight defeating Susquehanna 3-2 in double overtime. Allison Groft (Hanover, Pa. / South Western) redirected a pass from senior Kortney Showers (Aspers, Pa. / Biglerville) to earn her second goal of the night and walk off against the Crusaders in Selinsgrove earlier tonight. The Eagles rebounded well after they saw their eight game winning streak come to an end. The win gives Juniata a place in the conference tournament, and the sole pocession of second place in the Landmark. Susquehanna has been eliminated from the postseason.
The Crusaders jumped out to an early lead finding the cage in the third minute to go ahead 1-0. Five minutes later freshman Katie Alexander (Mifflinburg, Pa. / Mifflinburg) scored her fourth goal of the season to tie the game for Juniata. Tori Buser (Allentown, Pa. / Parkland) assisted her on the play. Groft scored her first goal of the game, on another assist from Showers, just under five minutes into the second half, to put the Eagles ahead.
Susquehanna scored again with seven minutes left to play in regulation to tie the contest at two all. Neither team scored during the next 22 minutes of play. Then Groft scored her team leading ninth goal of the season as the Eagles defeated another conference rival on a golden goal in double overtime.
This is a Juniata team that has shown its resiliency all season, proving to be undaunted by whatever adversity it has faced. Coach Caroline Gillich spoke about her team's play and attitude afterwards, "Our team played a good game tonight. We had a bloody injury early in the game and a key player was out of the first half, along with another injury to a great team organizer. That coupled with other losses and difficulties this past week could have spelled trouble, but it didn't." She added, "I was really proud of the way our players stayed focused and scored to tie it up quickly after an early goal against. Our seniors played great hockey off of each other and really stepped up their leadership, as did many of the juniors." Already looing ahead, Gillich noted that the team will play twice this weekend, "We look forward to a weekend of hockey ahead as we play two opponents back to back. This weekend we will need every player ready to go in at a moment's notice."
Juniata moves to 11-3 on the season and 4-1 against Landmark Conference opponents. The Eagles will travel to Maryland to play Goucher on Saturday and then to The College of New Jersey on Sunday. Field hockey returns home on November 1st to host Catholic on senior day.
