University of Richmond
Temple (Atlantic 10 Semifinals)
Field Hockey Tops Temple; Advances To Saturday's A-10 Title Game
11/07/2008 | Field Hockey
Nov. 7, 2008
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Junior Sarah Blythe-Wood scored the game-winning goal just 50 seconds into overtime and junior Megan Thompson had two goals as the Richmond field hockey team defeated Temple 4-3 in the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament on Friday on the Owls' home field.
Richmond (10-10, 5-1 Atlantic 10) advances to play top seed and No. 18 ranked Massachusetts (15-4, 6-0 Atlantic 10) in the conference championship game on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Temple. The Minutewomen defeated Saint Joseph's 3-0 in the second semifinal game on Friday.
The Spiders and Minutewomen have combined to win the last 12 Atlantic 10 Championships. Richmond is now 53-4 in its last 57 games against Atlantic 10 opponents, but three of those losses have come to UMass.
The second-seeded Spiders led 3-1 with less than three minutes remaining in regulation, but the host Owls scored a goal with 2:55 remaining and then tied the game on a penalty corner with 1:32 left in regulation.
While briefly stunned by seeing their two-goal lead disappear, the Spiders did not take long to recover, as Blythe-Wood found the back of the cage less than one minute into overtime.
"It was a Christmas present," Blythe-Wood said. "I'm just ecstatic that we could finish it in under a minute, get out of here and prepare for tomorrow. We played well, we deserved that."
"We knew this was going to be a fight to the finish and it certainly turned out that way," Richmond head coach Gina Lucido said. "I'm so proud of the girls, it comes down to do-or-die and when those two goals were scored, they kept their eyes on prize and remained poised."
Blythe-Wood, who also had an assist in the game, now has seven goals and five assists for 19 points.
Thompson scored two goals on Friday, marking the fourth time in the last eight games that she has scored two goals in a game. Thompson is now tied for the team lead with 12 goals, 10 of which have come in the last nine games.
Thompson gave the Spiders a 1-0 lead just 12:30 into the game when she took a pass from senior Alex Malatesta on the right wing, carried the ball into the circle and beat the keeper on what was intended as a pass to freshman Katelin Peterson.
"I was trying to hit Katelin on the far post, but we'll take it," Thompson said.
Spider junior Dani Pycroft made it 2-0 less than four minutes later on a reverse stick shot that was her seventh goal of the season. That is how the score remained until Temple's Dannah Brehm scored with 20:31 remaining in the game to cut the gap to 2-1.
Thompson's second goal of the game on an assist from Blythe-Wood pushed Richmond's lead to 3-1 with 16:25 remaining in the match. Richmond appeared headed to a comfortable victory, having held Temple to just four shots over the games first 63 minutes.
Then, with just under three minutes remaining, the Owls brought the ball into their end of the field and Brehm scored her second goal of the day. About a minute later the Owls were awarded a penalty corner and Mandi Ruth converted it to tie the game and force overtime.
"When they got that momentum, there was nothing we could really do about it. We just had to keep playing," Thompson said.
