SELINSGROVE, PA (November 4, 2023) – On a breezy Saturday afternoon at Sassafras Field, the 2023 Landmark Conference Field Hockey Tournament culminated in a championship game between #1 seed Susquehanna and #3 seed Scranton that will go down as one of the single greatest contests in conference history. After a dramatic and hard-fought 80 minutes of play, with still no winner after double overtime, the two squads entered a penalty shootout, where Susquehanna came out the victors 2-1.
Much of regulation played out in a manner emblematic of the strengths of the two squads, who went through much of the regular season with stellar defensive records and showed why in their championship matchup. Shots were limited for both teams, with two for each team through the first three quarters. However, Scranton would make the most of their limited chances early on, as they scored the first goal of the game late in the first quarter, with Bridget Abraldes registering her 12th goal of the year after a ball was played toward the back post by Reagan Dolan.
That one goal lead would stand for more than 46 minutes, as the defenses remained in fine form as the game wore on. Play began to open up a bit in the fourth quarter as time grew short for an SU equalizer. Chances increased for both offenses, as Scranton tallied three shots and forced a save in the fourth quarter, taking advantage of some breakaway chances as Susquehanna threw more players forward in search of a goal. The River Hawks had quite a few chances of their own, adding four shots to their total and also forcing a Scranton save. That save proved to provide the critical chance for SU, as first-year Taylor Rothermel jumped on that rebounding save and poked the ball into the cage, tying the game with just over two minutes left in regulation. The chance came after a penalty corner yielded a shot for Katie Bucher, who galvanized the SU offense throughout the game with five total shots and four on goal.
The overtime periods held further drama, as chances abounded for both offenses with the reduced number of players on the field. The number would shrink further for Scranton twice during overtime, as they would pick up two green cards in close succession, just before and just after the break between the first and second overtime periods. It was the goalies, particularly SU's Ashley Derrick, who proved mainly responsible for the contest continuing, as they both made save after save. Derrick tallied five saves in the first overtime alone, adding one more in the second overtime and finishing the day with a total of eight saves in open play. She stood tall throughout, making an especially crucial intervention late in the first overtime as she rushed out to block a one-on-one chance from an onrushing Katie Redding, the Landmark's leading scorer for the past two seasons.
After a breathless back-and-forth 80 minutes of action, the two teams had exhausted themselves in herculean fashion, with the visiting Royals tallying 15 shots to Susquehanna's 10, all after neither squad had more than two shots through the first three quarters of regulation. Each team tallied 11 penalty corners, but after all of that, they still could not be separated. And so they would settle it in a penalty shootout.
Scranton would take the first shot of the shootout, and yet again Derrick proved her dominance in goal, saving the first attempt and stopping the second as well, after Susquehanna's first shooter was also stopped. Bucher would be the first to score, stepping up as Susquehanna's second taker and adeptly maneuvering around the goalkeeper to fire into the empty cage. But as was the case all game, the sides were not separated for long, as Abraldes came through for Scranton once more, beating Derrick and tying the shootout 1-1. The next two shooters would both be unsuccessful, with Kari Schmidt just missing wide right and then Derrick stepping up to stop Redding once again. The fourth taker for SU was Lydia Hidlay, who stepped up in a crucial spot once again after being a hero in SU's semifinal against Moravian. She converted her penalty to put Susquehanna back in the lead, with Scranton down to their final taker. Once more, Derrick made the save, stopping her fourth penalty shot of the shootout, clinching the championship for Susquehanna, and earning herself well-deserved MVP honors.
Susquehanna claims their second Landmark title in program history, both under the direction of head coach Allison Fordyce, who led the River Hawks to their first title in 2018, one they also claimed by beating Scranton. The team will now need to wait just a day to find out who they'll face in the NCAA DIII Championship First Round, with the bracket being revealed tomorrow night at 10:30 pm. The selection show will be streamed live on ncaa.com, with Susquehanna and 16 other conference champions receiving automatic qualifiers, along with nine at-large selections that will comprise the field of 26. The first-round games will take place on Wednesday, November 8 at the respective host sites.
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--RIVER HAWKS--
