The American University Eagles (7-6) defeated the Lehigh University Mountain Hawks (8-6) 3-1 on Friday Oct. 14. The end of the regular season quickly approaches for the Eagles, and that urgency showed in their play.
“We are on the edge and we have to classify for the tournament. I mean, we're in the top four but, we got to, we want to stay there,” sophomore midfielder Federica Turina Dellamaggiore said.
“As a senior I know it's the last couple of games so it's really important to make the tournament, play even longer and just put a lot of hard work in,” midfielder Merel Dupont said.
The Eagles were able to dominate possession during the first quarter, and the two teams remained scoreless for much of the period.
American was the more penalized team all game with three green cards, and Dupont took the first of the game near the end of the first quarter. Shortly after, Lehigh sophomore Eleni Kountroubis capitalized on the penalty and scored to put the Mountain Hawks up 1-0.
The Eagles entered the second quarter down a goal but undeterred. The Mountain Hawks had a scoring chance just four minutes into the quarter, but AU’s defense came up big once again.
Their stop allowed Dupont to navigate the ball out of the circle and send a pass up to senior Megan Hoffman. Hoffman sprinted down the field, lifted the ball over the stick of a Lehigh defender, drew Lehigh goalkeeper Maddie Kahn out of her cage and buried the ball in the net to even up the score.
With four and a half minutes left, Lehigh received their third penalty corner of the quarter. They were once again unable to score. American then sent the ball up to Dupont who passed to Dellamaggiore at the top of the circle where she drove home the Eagles’ second goal of the game.
After a scoreless third quarter, the match remained close at the start of the fourth with the score still at 2-1 Eagles. Lehigh made their way down to American’s goal to begin the quarter but were unable to make anything of it as freshman Agustina Roffo intercepted a pass. Roffo carried the ball back down the field and Dellamaggiore eventually tapped the ball in for her second goal of the day.
The fourth quarter ended without any more scoring for either team, and the Eagles secured the 3-1 win in their penultimate home game.
“We fought really hard, defense played great. But really at the end of the day, we had to put pressure on them by being able to get good finishes and their goalkeeper is very, very good. So it's great to get some extra scoring chances close today,” Head Coach Steve Jennings said.
The offense got the job done to win this game, but the defense put in the work to make it possible, especially Boshoff and junior goalkeeper Bryn Underwood. Lehigh had four penalty corners and were unable to score on any of them thanks to AU’s defense.
The Eagles will return to Jacobs to face William & Mary for their senior game and final game of the regular season on Oct. 29 at 3 p.m.
