Mustang midfielder Sybil Stanton’s goal with 36 seconds remaining in regulation pushed SUNY Morrisville past the Oswego State women’s field hockey team, defeating the Lakers, 3-2, on Saturday afternoon at Laker Field.
Morrisville converted on three of their nine penalty corner opportunities, including their final attempt with under a minute remaining in the game. Senior forward Lauren Bordonaro took the penalty corner from the backline of the Oswego State defensive zone and fed the ball in front of the net. After the ensuing scramble, Stanton located the ball and put it past Laker goalie Jamie Scharfe.
In a game that featured trash talking, yellow cards, heated exchanges between coaches and a dog running out onto the field, Stanton’s goal ruined what appeared to be a picture perfect Senior Day, in which the Lakers honored their seven seniors.
Trailing by a goal with just under four minutes to play in regulation, the Lakers appeared to have sent the game into overtime when junior midfielder Jackie Cook scored her second goal of the game. Cook’s goal was the result of a penalty corner taken by senior forward Brittany Roetzer. Roetzer passed the ball to junior midfielder Jordan McGuire on the right side, who found Cook in the middle of the box for the goal.
Coming into the game, Cook had not scored a single goal in her first 41 appearances.
"It’s amazing," Cook said. "But I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the great assists that were given to me. It was the whole team, not just me."
The Mustangs, fresh off their first SUNYAC victory against SUNY Oneonta the previous afternoon, scored twice in the first 10 minutes of the first half, both off penalty corners. With 31:17 remaining in the half, sophomore defender Jamie Anderson rocketed a shot that deflected off Scharfe and popped over her head and into the back of the net. Bordonaro took the penalty corner and found Anderson at the top of the box for her fourth goal of the season.
Just over six minutes later, it was Bordonaro who found the back of the net. Bordonaro again took the penalty corner and passed it to Anderson at the top of the box. Anderson fired a shot through traffic and was deflected over the head of Scharfe by Bordonaro for the two-goal lead. The goal was Bordonaro’s team-leading sixth goal.
Rough play between the two teams was evident throughout the game. Three yellow cards and one green card were assessed by the officials. McGuire was given a green card with 24:33 remaining in the first half and a yellow card with 6:08 remaining in the half for arguing with Morrisville’s Natasha Ede. Ede was also given a yellow card for arguing with McGuire. Morrisville’s Molly Luzak and Alexis Tinnirello were also given yellow cards during the game.
"We performed cleanly and with class," coach Brandi Ostrander said. "Regardless of the outcome of the game I’m very proud of my team for holding their composure and playing to their potential."
"They’ve been known to play scrappy and tough and we knew they were going to play like that," Cook said. "We wanted it so bad that at times we did go to their level, but for the most part, we kept our heads up and we played really clean."
Not even halftime could cool the two teams down. During the intermission, Morrsiville head coach Adair Milmoe argued with the officials that the Lakers were illegally using their sticks to gain possession of the ball. When Ostrander joined the conversation at midfield, Milmoe demonstrated what she was seeing out of Ostrander’s players. After exchanging words, Ostrander walked back to her bench saying, "I know how to coach my team."
The Lakers outshot the Mustangs 17-10 and had the advantage in penalty corners, 22-9, but were unable to capitalize. While Morrisville converted 33 percent of their penalty corners, the Lakers converted just 4.5 percent of their penalty corners. Morrisville goalie Kelsey Pelligrino finished the game with seven saves and Scharfe finished with two saves for Oswego State.
The loss drops the Lakers to 4-7 and 1-3 in SUNYAC play. The Lakers travel to Oneonta on Saturday, Oct. 9 and to SUNY New Paltz on Saturday, Oct. 10, to close out their SUNYAC schedule.
