The top-seeded Northeastern field hockey team (17-4, 4-1 America East) took care of business Sunday at Sweeney Field, dispensing of Maine for the team’s eighth AE title. The Huskies overpowered the Black Bears in the second half en route to a 4-0 triumph.
With the game scoreless at halftime, it appeared as though it would be a classic duel for the crown, but NU came out firing in the second half. After NU head coach Cheryl Murtagh called a timeout, Northeastern controlled play and kept the ball in the Maine end for much of the second frame.
“I felt like we were standing around looking at the ball,” Murtagh said. “One thing we’ve done all year long is pass well. We needed to start doing more of that, and once we did, look what happened. I got really emotional about it because I didn’t want to stand around and see this team not fight for what they deserve.”
Not wasting much time, Murtagh’s players responded at the 27:40 mark of the second half. Sophomore standout and second leading scorer Mari Creatini took a penalty corner and passed it out to Leigh Shea, who stopped the ball and made way for a Fior Arrindell shot. The shot, deflected by Liane Dixon, landed back on the stick of Creatini. She buried her 12th tally of year, and it was all NU would need to dispose of the Black Bears.
Keeping sustained pressure on the Bears with sharp passing in their offensive zone, NU notched another goal just minutes later. After a blocked Northeastern shot, and a brief scrum in front of the net, junior Sarah Webber clawed her way out from the mass of players and was in control of the ball. She found the back of net, giving Northeastern its second goal.
Webber attributed much of the newfound Husky momentum to Murtagh’s timeout.
“After that timeout we said ‘You know girls, we’ve got 35 minutes to a championship, let’s get it done,'” she said. “I think the passing game was huge for us, as soon as we start to pass we can get chances to finish, and we did.”
Murtagh and Creatini echoed the sentiments of the junior forward.
“I think the passing game opened a lot of things up for us today,” Murtagh said. “They’re [Northeastern] a good team, and they all have good skills. If you keep giving the ball to different players with good skill, it’s hard to stop.”
“She woke us up a little bit [with the timeout], and after that we started passing and receiving well, doing the things we should’ve done from the start,” said Creatini. “We did the little things right after that.”
The finest example of Northeastern’s eloquent passing came on the third goal of the game. On a penalty corner Creatini sent the ball out to Shea, who dutifully received the pass. She slapped the ball over to senior Sarah Broderick, and after a give-and-go with Arrindell, Broderick blasted her shot past Maine goalie Holly Colberg.
Six minutes later, on an almost identical play, Broderick knocked her second goal of the game home, NU’s fourth in just over ten minutes. But this time, there was no give-and-go. Broderick took the feed from Arrindell and powered a thigh-high shot into the right corner of the net. With 16 minutes to go, NU held a commanding 4-0 lead.
Although Maine was able to manage two quality scoring chances late in the game, NU goalie Emily Roy wasn’t about to let in a goal on the soggy afternoon. Flopping around the mouth of the goal, onlookers could only wonder how she managed to keep two imminent Maine scoring efforts from landing in the back of the net.
“A lot of the team’s goals this year were defensive. I thought they played outstanding defense in that first half and really kept us in the game,” Murtagh said. “Emily [Roy] made a couple huge saves there in the end.”
Broderick took home the tournament’s Most Outstanding Performer award, as teammates Arrindell, Creatini, and Roy were named to the All-Tournament team as well. With the win, NU earns a berth in the upcoming NCAA championship tournament. It will be the team’s 12th appearance.
