On Wednesday, the No. 18 Montclair State Red Hawks went up against No. 9 Misericordia looking for their second straight win.
The Red Hawks came out on fire, as just four minutes into the game, forward Kylie Prendergast was taken down inside the box by a Misericordia defender. Prendergast then calmly side-footed the penalty kick into the left side of the net to open the scoring for the Red Hawks.
In the 28th minute, the Red Hawks struck again. This time Red Hawks midfielder Meagan O'Callahan sent a long pass up the field to Aileen Cahill, who beat a defender to get to the ball which landed on the edge of Misericordia's 18-yard-box. Cahill then scored one-on-one with Misericordia's goalkeeper to give her team a 2-0 lead.
The Red Hawks made it a three-goal lead, when freshman midfielder Shannon Mullins took a long shot from outside the box. Misericordia's goalkeeper dove to her right but was unable to hold on to the ball, which slipped underneath her body and gave the Red Hawks a commanding 3-0 lead before halftime.
Five minutes after the second half began, Misericordia's Emma Sweitzer scored one-on-one with Martin to cut the Red Hawks lead down to 3-1.
Misericordia's first goal of the game failed to faze the Red Hawks, who almost scored again off a corner kick in the 60th minute. When the ball was not cleared out of the box by a Misericordia player, it landed in front of their goalkeeper. A Red Hawks player was close to the ball and surely would have scored if not for a Misericordia defender clearing it at the last minute.
Montclair State finally got another goal in the 88th minute, when Prendergast scored one-on-one with Misericordia's goalkeeper. The goal was her second of the game and stretched Montclair State's lead to 4-1, which is how the game would end.
Coming into tonight's game, Misericordia had scored 11 goals in their first four games of the season, but they only scored once against the Red Hawks. After the game, Red Hawks head coach Patrick Naughter described why his team held a higher-ranked opponent in check.
We knew they were going to be really good. They’re a well-coached team and for me, one of the top four teams in the country last year. We knew they were going to attack us. We knew we were going to be tested like we haven’t been before, and I thought our back line did amazingly well. Haley’s been amazing all year but sometimes she’s been asked to make plays that no keeper can make. Today, we were a little bit better in front of her. Kept the ball in savable shots and Haley did a great job. I’m not surprised that we scored. We can go. We’re a good attacking team and we can go, and we’ve got some really talented kids. For me, Aileen and Kylie have been doing it now for a couple of years. They’re as good as anybody in the region. We knew it was going to be a fight. We finished our chances and made some saves and that explains the scoreline.
- MSU Head Coach Patrick Naughter
Team defense may not show up in the box score like offense does, but that doesn't mean the Red Hawks backline doesn't deserve credit for this win. Misericordia outshot the Red Hawks 15 to ten in this game, but the Red Hawks backline consisting of Julie Baker, Emmi Denovellis, Kerri Driscoll and Kelly Fitzgerald were key to making sure that those shots were savable for their goalkeeper.
During halftime, we knew that they'd be coming out really strong. We knew that they wanted to get some goals, so we knew we had to just keep up the tempo, keep up the pace. Really try and lock them in and they definitely had some opportunities, but we stopped them at the end of the day. So that definitely worked out for us.
-MSU defender, Kelly Fitzgerald
It's a quick turnaround for the Red Hawks, who will be looking for their third win in a row when they visit Vassar College this Saturday.
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