By Andy MacDougall, News Correspondent
When senior forward Crystal Poland broke Northeastern’s all-time goals record three weeks ago in a game against Harvard University, she tried to shrug off the recognition. It was more about the win, she claimed. It had always been about earning the win.
Well, Poland’s latest accomplishment is a little more difficult to brush off.
With two goals against Hofstra University on Friday, Poland broke the Northeastern all-time points record of 162. And behind four goals on the weekend by both Poland and freshman forward Deirdre Duke, the Huskies (12-4, 4-1 CAA) notched a dominating 7-1 victory over Hofstra University before falling to cross-town rival Boston University, 4-3, in double-overtime.
“I think one of the major points to take away is that the attack did a really good job in putting in 10 goals this weekend,” senior midfielder Allison Conti said. “That’s a very positive thing that we should be proud of as a team, but we also let in five [goals].”
In their final trip to Durham, N.H., for the remainder of the 2012 season, the Huskies netted a season-high seven goals on the Pride in their most dominating offensive output of the season.
Scoring opened up early and got out of hand late. Poland pulled herself within one point of the Northeastern record after burying one of her trademark goals 3:22 into the game – off a penalty corner pass from junior forward Lindsay Bennett, set up by senior forward Nicky Graham.
Duke would then go on to net a natural hat trick, scoring the next three Northeastern goals. Her first came from Bennett on a pass in the circle just more than five minutes into the game.
She would follow it up a little more than 20 minutes later off a feed from sophomore back Kate Carlson that she dribbled through the defense. Her third goal of the half would come with a minute left in the first half, as she deflected a shot from sophomore midfielder Caroline Judge into the back of the cage.
The Pride earned one back on a one-timer from junior forward Jillian Geysen, but Northeastern entered the break with a 4-1 lead.
Poland broke the school’s points record off a deflected shot from Duke four minutes into the second half, and less than 30 seconds later, Duke found the ball alone in the circle for the 6-1 lead.
Bennett added a tally of her own late in the game to push the score to 7-1.
The four-goal effort by Duke was tied for the second-largest goal output this season in the NCAA. Three players have scored five goals this season.
“It was nice to finally get a big score against a team,” Duke said. “We haven’t been scoring that many goals, so it’s definitely a confidence boost. A lot of people got on the scoreboard, so it was nice.”
Two days later, the Huskies headed to Jordan Field at Harvard University for a date with then-No. 13 Boston University.
The Terriers opened the scoring with a reverse stick drive by freshman forward Sofi Laurito less than three minutes into the game.
Fifteen minutes later, Poland continued to build on her program-leading goal and points totals, netting the equalizer off of a penalty stroke, for her 23rd goal of the season.
At 24:01, BU’s junior midfielder Ella Gunson was able to beat Northeastern senior goalie Lizzie Priest with another reverse stick drive that went top-shelf on the veteran netminder. Gunson’s goal put the Terriers up 2-1 at the half.
Northeastern would take the lead on goals by Poland and Bennett less than two minutes apart early in the second, but Gunson tied the game at three with fifteen minutes remaining to send the game to overtime.
The first overtime was evenly matched, but when Graham dove behind Priest to keep the ball out of the net, BU was awarded a penalty stroke. BU’s senior forward Nicole van Oosterom hit the left post and it ricocheted wide.
In the second overtime, Poland and Duke had shots early, but Gunson took a pass at the 92:38 mark of the game, shot it low, and tucked it past Priest for the game-winner.
“It was kind of a mixed emotions weekend, I suppose,” Duke said. “We’re kind of regrouping and reevaluating all our stuff. We were coasting there for a while, and I think we became a bit too complacent. We’re getting back to basics.”
Poland finished the game with a season-high nine shots on net.
Poland’s record-breaking weekend – in which she netted nine points – brought her CAA Co-Player of the Week honors. It was the fourth time this season the conference has awarded the honor to Poland.
Right behind her was Duke, whose four-goal outburst earned the freshman her third CAA Rookie of the Week nomination.
For the third consecutive week, Northeastern remained at No. 10 in this week’s National Field Hockey Coaches Poll. This is the seventh-consecutive week the Huskies have earned an appearance in the Top 10.
Northeastern will return to the pitch Friday in Philadelphia as they play Drexel University before returning home for Senior Day on Sunday afternoon at Harvard to face Towson University.
“Our main focus is just to out-play Drexel 110 percent,” said Conti. “We want to come out flying and shut them down right away. It’s their home field, so we know they’re going to come out hard, and they’ve always had a good program. We really respect them, and we’re just going to come out aggressive and try to put one in right away.”
