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River Hawks overtime miracle

Bianca Jones’ hat-trick goal leads to field hockey victory over UC Davis.

Shane Foley
Connector Editor

The UMass Lowell River Hawks women’s field hockey team took the field last Friday with a mission to redeem their previous loss over UC Davis. Almost 83 minutes later, the River Hawks had just enough in them to pull off a game-winning shot.

Leading the crew for the River Hawks was Bianca Jones, who capped off a hat trick with her overtime goal. Jones had played all 82:36 of the game.

Jones was not only the last to score, but the first as well. Early in the game, Christa Doiron was able to whack the ball past the defense from midfield. The ball found its way to Jones, who popped an uncontested shot in the upper left hand corner.

Kristin Rodgers scored first for the UC Davis Aggies. She took a pass from Agustina Singh and shot it through goalkeeper Kelsey Federico’s legs to tie the game.

“I know I should have made that save,” said Federico. “That frustration got me going [though].” She would later give up one other goal and make four saves in the game.

UC Davis struck again before the half. Jamie Garcia this time took a corner from Linnea Whitney to give the Aggies a 2-1 lead.

“We worked a lot on [corners] in practice,” said Federico.

The second half started with a bit of controversy on a would-be goal for UMass Lowell. Jones, on a 2-1 breakaway, passed it to Fiona Fitzgerald, who got a shot off. The referee, however, signaled that the ball never crossed the line, indicating that there was no goal.

The River Hawks quickly shook it off as Jones scored an unassisted goal later to tie the game at two points apiece.

Neither team could settle the score in regulation. They would therefore have to face what would turn out to be a long overtime.

UMass Lowell dominated time of possession in overtime. They had the ball deep in the other end, but couldn’t quite put the ball in.

“It stinks not scoring,” said Jones. “We just wanted the game to end.”

Later in the game, UC Davis played a corner that gave the crowd a scare. The ball was played, and a UC Davis Aggie received the pass from behind the circle. She then sent the ball in, but nobody got a stick on it when it broke the defense. It got past the net, and the crowd reacted like UC Davis had just won the game, but the referee called it a no-goal since it was shot from behind the circle.

The game was almost looking at double overtime with three minutes to go. It was then when Chelsea Chronopoulos passed the ball to Jones, who dribbled around her defender and put the ball in the cage that put the game to bed. Jones sealed her hat trick, and UML sealed their fourth victory.

When asked about what this win does for the team, Jones simply said, “It gets us prepared for our next game on Tuesday.”

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