CHESTNUT HILL – When field hockey captain Melissa Rowell hit Mari Creatini with a 50-yard pass 11 minutes into overtime at 18th ranked Boston College, the game was as good as over.
Creatini collected the pass at the near corner, burnt an Eagle defender, drew the goalie out of the net and slid the ball shortside to win the game 3-2.
While Creatini’s game-winner was a thing of beauty, the play of the game came a minute earlier, when goalie Diana Nelson came up big on a BC breakaway. When Virginia Drozd broke in all alone, without a Husky within 15 feet of her, Nelson forced her progressively left until Drozd was forced to take a tough angle shot that went wide.
“My main goal was to stay on my feet and force her wide,” said Nelson, a junior. “All I could think about was stopping the ball.”
Creatini’s goal was the beginning of another white-hot week for the junior forward. She scored a career-high four goals in a 6-0 road victory over University of Maryland-Baltimore County and another pair of goals in a 4-3 loss at Delaware.
The eight goal week brought Creatini’s season total to 15, exceeding last season’s total of 14 and giving her the nation’s number one rank in both goals (15) and points (36). And it isn’t even close, her nearest competition in goals is a quintet of girls tied with 11, while the second highest point total is 27.
Northeastern scored its first goal against BC at 26:32 in the first half, the same manner as many others this season, with Creatini pushing out a penalty corner to Leigh Shea, who stopped the ball for a Sara Webber shot.
Webber fired the ball backdoor to Creatini who redirected the ball past the Eagle keeper.
Ten minutes later, 13th-ranked NU was on the board again when Webber dribbled through some traffic in front of the net and fired a shot into the backstop for a 2-0 lead.
The Eagles’ only real scoring threat was averted without as much as a shot when a hustling Rowell broke up a partial breakaway by BC without even drawing a penalty corner.
Closing in on half-time, the game had the makings of another easy Husky victory. But any hopes the visiting squad had of coasting to a win were dashed when Sabrina Lazzari caught Nelson out of net and cut the NU lead to 2-1.
After the intermission, the teams seemed to switch personas with BC pressing the attack and NU fighting to get the ball out of their defensive zone.
The Huskies’ passing in their end became ragged and inept, resulting in a multitude of Eagle scoring chances.
On one particular play, Nelson made what will likely go down as her save of the year, leaping into the air to reject, a la Shaq, a shot that was destined for the roof of the net.
The save seemed to energize the Huskies momentarily, but before long they were chasing BC around their zone and fighting off penalty corners.
BC’s Sara York finally tied it up with 10:26 left in the game, nearly causing the hostile Eagle crowd to jump out of their pleated chinos.
Nelson would need to make another sprawling save on a BC penalty corner to insure her squad would have a chance in the extra frame. The sudden death overtime period is played with only six players from each team on the field instead of the usual 10.
After Nelson thwarted the Eagles’ breakaway, Rowell found Creatini deep in BC territory and she silenced the 236 BC faithful.
“We knew coming into overtime we were going to give 100 percent heart,” said Nelson. “We said we wanted to win it in the first five minutes, and we did it.”
The next contest, Saturday, on the road against a solid but unranked Delaware team, had all the makings of a classic let-down, which was exactly what it became.
The Blue Hens jumped out to a two goal lead which was cut in half with less than a minute left in the half when Creatini converted on a penalty stroke. Creatini tied the score in the second half and dished to Shea to put the Huskies up 3-2 at 44:19.
Jesse Balmer ended Northeastern’s four-game winning streak by scoring two goals in the game’s final seven minutes to sink NU, 4-3.
The Huskies bounced back in a big way the next day however, defending their America East title by scoring three times in the opening eight minutes and thrashing an overmatched UMBC squad, 6-0.
