Oct. 4, 2008
Box Score
EASTON, Pa. - Better late than never.
The Lafayette field hockey team made an impressive second-half comeback to win 2-1 in double overtime in Saturday's Patriot League opener against Bucknell. The Leopards kick off the conference season 1-0 for the first time since Sept. 22, 2002.
For the second time in eight days, senior Maggie Condon scored the overtime game-winner to lift the Leopards to victory. But simply getting to overtime was a battle in itself.
The Leopards fell behind 1-0 in the first period when Bucknell forced a penalty corner and midfielder Megan Krebs connected with the goal at 26:42.
After halftime, the Bison elected to substitute Sarah Zargarpour for starting goalie Jessie Atieh. Zargarpour gave up the first goal when Lafayette's Lindsay Majno capitalized on a 2-on-1 breakaway less than five minutes remaining in the game.
Her fourth goal of the season ignited Lafayette. Even though the Bison drew a penalty corner as time expired, the Leopards refused to give up the ground they had gained and blocked Sarah Ebright's shot to send the game into overtime.
Lafayette continued to control the tempo, drawing seven penalty corners in the first extra 15 minutes. But the Leopards couldn't find their way into the cage and once again, Bucknell forced a penalty corner as time expired.
This time, Amanda Faust's shot went wide and the game headed into double overtime.
The Leopards burst on to the field in celebration after Condon chipped in her 11th goal of the season with an assist by fellow senior Jaclyn DiSanti. With the win, Lafayette (8-4, 1-0) tops Bucknell (7-4, 0-1) atop the Patriot League standings.
"In overtime, I'm very confident with our team. We have a great group out there and it showed," head coach Andrew Griffiths said. "It's really good to get the first Patriot League game under our belts with the win. I'm sure we'll see Bucknell again. Now that we've reached a good level of play, the challenge for us is to maintain it through the next four weeks."
Lafayette will head out on a four-game road trip beginning on Wednesday at Columbia at 7 p.m.
