No. 23 Terriers Handle Holy Cross With Ease in Turnpike Trophy Matchup

By: Andrew Mason

BOSTON — Thanks to a lights-out display of shooting by Boston University Field Hockey on Friday night, the No. 23 Terriers grabbed an 8-1 win at Holy Cross. The win adds to BU’s comfortable 3-0 lead against the Crusaders in the third annual Turnpike Trophy. BU moves to 9-5 on the season, and is still perfect, at 4-0, in the Patriot League.

This team has improved tremendously in recent games on some of its major problems from early September, and Friday’s match was a clear demonstration of this newly refined play.

Six different Terriers contributed goals, making it the highest scoring performance of the season for BU. In pre-conference games, the Terriers struggled to find the back of the cage often. To put it into perspective, BU scored 14 goals in the last two contests; it took the first seven games of the year to reach that same goal count.

A big reason for the new offensive success has been the play of junior Ally Hammel, who was on fire against Holy Cross. The veteran defensive back snuck two goals past Crusader goalie Marcia LaPlante within two minutes of each other, her 4th and 5th tallies of 2017.

The Terriers’ leading scorer, Ailsa Connolly, also contributed to the BU scoring frenzy, as did Miya Denison, Grace Boston, Kali Shumock and Kara Enoch.

Defensively, the Terriers continued to be disciplined, only allowing Holy Cross four penalty corner situations across the 70 minutes of action. However, the lone Crusader goal came when senior Rachel Lapar scored on BU goalie Millie Baker off of a corner midway through the first half.

Baker, the freshman, got the start in goal for the Terriers once again, with junior Kathleen Keegan posting a shutout as the replacement in the second half. Overall, BU’s defensive unit has been excellent as of late, not allowing multiple goals for an opponent in six of its last seven matches.

The conference tilt was the first of two weekend contests for BU, as the Terriers’ toughest test of the pair came Sunday afternoon against the No. 10 Boston College Eagles. Looking for their second consecutive win over Top 25 teams, the Terriers fell just short, dropping an overtime battle, 3-2, to the rival Eagles.