SALISBURY, Md. - 21st-ranked Catholic field hockey dropped a non-conference road contest at sixth-ranked Salisbury, 7-0 on Wednesday evening.
The Cardinals were locked into a competitive battle early on, trailing just 2-0 at halftime. The Gulls added four fourth-quarter goals to break the contest open late.
In the first quarter, Catholic turned away four penalty corners in a short amount of time, keeping the game 0-0 in the early stretch. Salisbury's Emma Radebaugh scored with just over one minute left in the first quarter on the Sea Gulls first shot-on-goal, putting them ahead 1-0 after 15 minutes.
Catholic goalkeeper,
Abigail Kearney turned away two shots in the first three minutes of the second quarter, but the Gulls kept the pressure up, getting a second goal from McKenna Horner, 3:32 into the second. Kearney made her third stop of the quarter with less than five minutes remaining in the half before
Caroline Evans stepped in to make a defensive save with under three minutes remaining in the second quarter. Kearney's fourth and final save of the contest came with 1:13 remaining in the half, sending Catholic into the locker room within striking distance at 2-0.
Rachel Palumbo's team kept the action down in the Sea Gulls end for nearly four minutes in the heart of the third period, recording three penalty corners while taking six shots. Salisbury goalkeeper Addy O'Connell logged saves on back-to-back shots by
Kellie Caputo and
Mary Parker while Parker and
Allison Flynn had shots blocked moments earlier. After holding off the Gulls for the majority of the quarter and turning away three penalty corner chances, the Cardinals allowed a late goal by Arden Hunteman to send Salisbury up 3-0 into the final period.
Salisbury scored four goals in the final period to come away with a 7-0 home victory. Salisbury has scored three or more goals five times this season and has losses to only #3 Johns Hopkins and #4 Messiah. Catholic falls to 5-3 with two of its three losses coming to teams ranked in the top-seven in the NFHCA poll.
Catholic will return home for Landmark Conference action on Saturday afternoon as they host Scranton at 12 p.m. The Cardinals will also host their Alumni Game on Saturday immediately following the contest and tailgate.
