Newberry, S.C. - Five days after falling to the Newberry Wolves in an overtime heartbreaker, the Lander Field Hockey team got their revenge as they used a 48th minute goal from Sophie Schmitz to propel them to a 3-2 win on Thursday evening. The win puts the Bearcats at 5-6 overall and 3-6 in SAC play and firmly in control of thier own destiny for a SAC Tournament bid in their inaugural season.
The first quarter of the game was a fairly even matchup but on Newberry's second shot of the game they were able to find the opening goal off a well designed penalty corner play.
Lander would respond in the 17th minute as
Sophie Schmitz would tap in a
Frederique Van Der Houwen shot off a penalty corner to equalize. However, Newberry would be granted a penalty stroke a couple of minutes later and would have a prime opportunity to take the lead but
Isabel Elenga would stand tall and deny the attempt to keep the game tied at one. Lander would later overcome a man-down situation and the game would go into the halftime break tied at one.
The third quarter would have basically the same path as the first quarter as Van Der Houwen would force an early save but just under eight minutes into the quarter, the Wolves would break the deadlock to give them 2-1 lead. However, the Bearcats would be resilient as Schmitz would hit the post two minutes later. In the 43rd minute, Lander would be given a man up opportunity after a green card on Newberry but it would quickly go away as Lauren Punt would be shown one to put the game 10v10. Not even 15 seconds later, another Newberry green card would make it a 10v9 Bearcat man advantage.
On the ensuing restart, a long ball into the circle would find Sophie Schmitz who would pass to Dusty-Rose Miller for her first goal of the season to knot the game back up at two heading into the last 15 minutes of action.
The fourth quarter would see one shot taken by both teams and it came from the stick of Sophie Schmitz to give Lander the lead with just over 12 minutes to go. The Bearcat defense would be up to the task in those last moments as they would keep a potent Wolves attack silent to preserve the win and give the Blue and Gold their first win over Newberry.
The Lander Field Hockey Team will be back in action on Saturday as they travel to Wingate, N.C. to take on the Wingate Bulldogs for the first-ever meeting between the first-year SAC programs. That game is scheduled for a 1:00 PM start time.
