Sophomore Willow Perkins scored in the closing seconds of the first half and freshman goalkeeper Hannah Barnard made the lead stand with her first collegiate shutout as the Bloomsburg University field hockey team earned a hard-fought, 1-0, victory at Mansfield University on a rainy Wednesday afternoon. With the win, the Huskies improved to 7-6 overall and 3-2 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) standings. The Mountaineers dropped to 6-7 overall and 1-3 in league play.
Bloomsburg started quickly and maintained a majority of the offensive pressure in the first half against the Mountaineers. But, Mansfield goalkeeper Brittany Ryan was able to keep the Huskies off the scoreboard for the first 34 minutes with five early saves. However, with just 30 seconds left in the opening half, junior Erica Krebs took a shot that Mansfield’s Brogan Heisey was credited with a defensive save on. Perkins, after a scrum for the loose rebound, was able to get her stick on the ball and lift a shot over the head of Ryan and into the back of the goal for her third marker of the season.
With the goal, Perkins now leads the team with two game-winning tallies on the season.
Bloomsburg outshot Mansfield, 10-2, in the first half and held a slim, 2-1, edge in penalty corners.
The Mountaineers battled in the second half but Barnard was able to keep the hosts off the scoreboard with four second-half saves. The freshman’s biggest stop of the afternoon came on a well-designed penalty corner play by the Mountaineers with seven minutes left in regulation. After working the ball around the circle, Mansfield’s Chelsea Tanco had an opportunity to knot the game at 1-1 as she appeared to have a wide-open net right on the doorstep. However, Barnard dove over and was able to get enough of the shot to keep it from crossing the goal line and to keep the Mountaineers off of the scoreboard. That proved to be the final save Barnard needed to make to preserve the victory.
Bloomsburg held a 13-11 shot advantage in the second half and finished with a 23-13 lead in the category for the contest. Both teams had five penalty corners during the final 35 minutes.
Barnard earned her first collegiate shutout and improved to 2-1 on the season with six saves on the afternoon. Junior Tali Wehner was credited with a defensive save midway through the second half. Ryan dropped to 6-7 on the season with an 11-save performance for the Mountaineers.
The win avenged an earlier 1-0 overtime loss to the Mountaineers at Steph Pettit Stadium and moved the Huskies to 48-3-1 in the all-time series between the two schools.
Bloomsburg will return home on Saturday, October 14, when it hosts Slippery Rock University at Steph Pettit Stadium. Start time is scheduled for 12:00 p.m.