The field hockey team’s final two home games of the year bore an eerie resemblance to one another.
Before each game, the team honored an important milestone. And during each game, the Huskies often looked flat and tepid.
Prior to Friday’s game against No. 16 Drexel (13-3, 5-1 Colonial Athletic Association), Husky head coach Cheryl Murtagh was honored for her 300th win at Northeastern. Northeastern President Joseph Aoun, Athletics Director Peter Roby and Vice President for Student Affairs Ed Klotzbier were all on hand to honor Murtagh prior to the game.
The festivities stopped there as the Dragons singed the Husky defense for five first-half goals and a 5-0 win.
Sophomore Samantha Sewell made her first career start in net for the Huskies, allowing all five Dragon goals while making three saves including a diving stop on a penalty shot by forward Susan Cifuo nine minutes into the second half.
However, Sewell was done in by a leaky Husky defense and a pair of deflections that led to two Dragon goals.
“It’s hard to tell [how Sewell performed], because I don’t think we helped her a whole lot,” Murtagh said. “[She made] a couple good saves, but defensively I’d say we were pretty weak. We need to give her more help.”
Drexel forward Christina Mastropaolo scored 2:38 into the game and the Dragons never looked back. At 11:18, Mastropaolo notched her eighth goal of the season, getting her stick on a shot that popped into the air and found its way past Sewell. Northeastern (7-11, 1-5 CAA), called time out following the goal, but wasn’t able to get much going offensively, as Drexel had a stranglehold on them for most of the first half.
Drexel loosened up in the second half, but Northeastern wasn’t able to find the net.
“It’s pretty disappointing, I’m not sure where that performance came from. Drexel’s a pretty good team, we knew that, but we played [Boston College] pretty well and I would compare them to that,” Murtagh said.
Yesterday was senior day for the Huskies, as co-captains Ashley Bascetta and Jillian Wilkes, along with goalkeeper Colleen Duffy, were honored prior to their final home game against Hofstra (8-8, 2-4 CAA), which the Pride took 2-1.
“Jill Wilkes is an extraordinary person and a leader and example for our team,” Murtagh said. “Both her and Ashley had surgeries over the summer. Both of them have been fighting every day to be out their on the field. I think overall they’re just two great people that have been a good example for some young players.”
Neither team was unable to generate much of an attack early on in the game. The Pride broke the deadlock at 15:34 when forward Genna Kovar beat Duffy from the left side for her third goal of the year.
Hofstra wouldn’t score again until 45:41, off a penalty corner. Forward Charlia Warner took a pass from midfielder Nancy Wagenbrenner and zipped it past Duffy from the top right of the circle for her 10th goal of the season.
Despite drawing 11 penalty corners, including a flurry in the closing minutes, NU wasn’t able to convert any of them until 67:20, when sophomore midfielder Pam Aldridge took a Bascetta pass past Hofstra’s defense and beat Pride goalie Amanda Heyde for her 10th score of the year. The assist was Bascetta’s seventh.
“Our objective coming out of half was to go to goal, and send the ball towards the goal and we didn’t do that,” Murtagh said.
She was also disappointed with the Huskies inability to convert their penalty corners, she said.
Currently in eighth place, two spots out of a CAA tournament berth, Northeastern goes on the road for its final two games of the season. It faces No. 7 James Madison (15-2, 7-0) Friday at 6 p.m. and Virginia Commonwealth (4-13, 0-7) Sunday at 1 p.m.
