At the end of the first half of Wednesday afternoon’s game at Wildcat Stadium, the Wildcats and Dartmouth College Big Green were in an exciting Granite State battle. The score was 8-7 at the end of the first half in favor of Dartmouth.
The second half looked like a completely different game from the first. Much like the season opener against Harvard, UNH let the opposition run away with the game in the second frame. Six unanswered goals and 10 total tallies resulted in a blowout victory for the Big Green by way of an 18-8 final. Krissy Schafer recorded a hat trick and Devan Miller and Devon Croke each notched two points. Goalkeeper Kate Clancy stood tall despite the final result, posting another double-digit save total in two consecutive games.
Junior attackman Krissy Schafer scored a team-high three goals in Wednesday’s 18-8 loss.
The Wildcats now start their season winless at 0-2. In both games, second-half struggles were too much to overcome. For head coach Sarah Albrecht, the ‘Cats lost control when teh
“I think we lost a lot of momentum in the transition game. We turned the ball over a bunch,” head coach Sarah Albrecht said following the loss. “I some momentum started shifting in there favor and they were able to take advantage of those opportunities and score off some transition.”
The Wildcats were the first to score in the second straight game. Krissy Schafer has proven to be a legitimate scoring threat for UNH as the Wildcats’ first two goals came at the hands of Schafer. For the majority of the first half it was a goal-for-goal tradeoff. The Wildcats and Big Green each exchanged goals and Dartmouth jumped to a two-goal lead at three different points in the half. Carly Wooters, Miller, Croke and captain Marissa Gurello all played a part in the scoring effort to bring the seven goals, one shy of Dartmouth’s eight in the first half.
UNH scored only one goal in the second half. It was Schafer’s third of the game at 9:36 in the second half to stop the Big Green run and make the score 14-8. Other than that, Dartmouth ran wild at Wildcat Stadium. Cara DePippo, Elizabeth Mastrio, Kierra Sweeney, Sophia Turchetta, Courtney Weisse and Kathryn Giroux all were involved in the offensive explosion. Clancy was troubled with 20 second-half shots and the ‘Cats were taken out their game, resulting in a 18-8 loss.
Senior defensman Amy Lebel brings the ball up the field during Wednesday’s contest.
Albrecht comments that it is not necesarrily a certain element of the game that UNH is struggling in, but all the little things that are breaking down on the field.
“I think all up and down the field I think it’s the little things that we are not doing,” Albrecht said. “So we need to make sure that we are honing in on those little things: catching and throwing, sliding staying low in our stance. I think those little things are going to make a big difference.”
The ‘Cats will seek their first win of the season this Sunday when they travel to Storrs, CT to take on the University of Connecticut Huskies.
“We’re just focusing on our strengths and what we can take away from this game and what we did well and building off of that,” Gurello said.
The opening draw vs. UConn will take place at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 26.
