–R J Reynolds stops Asheville’s win streak in field hockey
4 October 2007By Michael Painter
ASHEVILLE - October 3, 2007 - Back on August 30, the Lady Cougars traveled to Winston Salem and defeated the R J Reynolds Demons, 3-0. On Wednesday, they came to Asheville seeking revenge for their loss. They got it, as they topped the Lady Cougars 2-1 in overtime.
It was a day where three goals scored by Asheville (14-2) were disallowed and the first goal by Reynolds (5-7) was actually a deflection off of the leg of an Asheville player, a violation that should have negated the goal.
"We have to learn from this loss," said head coach Lauren Kaye. "It’s a little humbling, but I’d rather lose to them now instead of three weeks from now (in the playoffs). We didn’t play with the intensity we are have been playing with until the last 15 minutes of the second half."
Indeed, the Lady Cougars didn’t look like the same team. It was almost like they were going through the motions. They were playing, but not with the fire that they have played with in the past 14 wins. Reynolds was the aggressor for much of the game, getting to more loose balls, but the statistics didn’t go in the favor of the Demons.
Asheville had 22 shots on goal and Reynolds had only 4 shots on goal. Mcgill had 19 saves for the Demons while Nuckolls had two saves. Corner kicks were also in the favor of the Cougars. Asheville had 15 corners and Reynolds had only three.
In the first half, Reynolds scored on a shot by Elizabeth Huber that hit the leg of an Asheville player and went in the goal. The ball is usually given to the opposing team if it hits the body of a player, as you can only hit the ball with the mallet.
Even the Reynolds’ coach, Karen Nixon, talked about it after the game.
"It hit the Asheville player before it went in," said Nixon. "Since Elizabeth hit it, we’ll give her credit for the score."
Twice in the first half, Asheville scored goals, but they were disallowed by the referees.
"They said the first shot never went in," said a disappointed Kaye. "and on the second one, they said that we kicked it in."
The Lady Cougars finally got on the board, tying the game at 1-1, when Kelly Olesiuk make a pass to Elizabeth Keil who blasted one past the Demon’s goalie, Barbre McGill with 6:35 left.
Two minutes later, Mallory Silver, on a free hit, blasted away from over 25 yards out and it also went in. Again, it was disallowed because it did was not touched by another Asheville player before it went in. It stayed at 1-1 after the end of regulation.
In the overtime, Asheville kept the ball on the Reynolds side of the field for most of the 10 minute period. Several times, the Cougars had shots at the goal that just missed.
With about 2:40 left in the overtime, Emily Bowden, who didn’t play in the first game between the two teams, but was a thorn in the side of the Cougars all day, got the ball about 60 yards from the goal and took off on a breakaway, with Emily Pearce in tow.
Bowden got close to the goal and fed Pearce got the ball and she pushed it past Cougar’s goalie, Ryan Nuckolls for the winning score, 2-1.
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