Daugherty's Hat Trick Pushes No. 5 Merrimack Past No. 9 East Stroudburg
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – With the match tied at 2-2 after 35 minutes of play, senior forward April Daugherty (Wakefield, R.I.) tallied two goals in a three-minute span, propelling the Merrimack field hockey team to a 4-3 road win over ninth-ranked East Stroudsburg on Sunday afternoon.
A day after suffering a season-opening setback against top-ranked West Chester, the Warriors (1-1) gutted out an impressive victory over ESU (1-1) in a battle of two teams that advanced to the Final Four in last fall's NCAA Tournament.
Daugherty, who totaled 50 points en route to All-American honors last season, picked up her first three markers of the year on Sunday, and all of them were needed in a match that came down to the wire.
After both teams went into the break tied at two goals apiece, the Wakefield, R.I., native untied the contest with her second goal at 52:30, as the senior ripped home a shot on a penalty corner after being set up by Candace Waldie (North Andover, Mass.) and Jamie Spano (Reading, Mass.) to push the visitors up by a 3-2 margin.
Just over three minutes later, Daugherty doubled the lead on an unassisted strike to round out her offensive performance.
The 4-2 advantage would hold until Lauren Ventrella scored on an assist from Ally Roth with just less than 10 minutes to play, cutting the deficit to a goal in the process.
But senior goalkeeper Kerri Bergquist (Mashpee, Mass.) was stellar for the second consecutive contest, turning in a 13-save performance to preserve the lead and seal the victory for the Warriors.
"It was a great team win today," head coach Anne Rounce said afterward. "We definitely attacked the ball more and played as a unit. ESU was a strong opponent and this game will help prepare us for our conference play."
Waldie put the visitors on the board early, scoring her second tally of the season and first of the game after taking a pass from Daugherty and slotting it past ESU netminder Sarah Dobroskey (four saves) just 3:27 into the game.
ESU would tie the contest five minutes later on an Ally Roth unassisted score, but Daugherty's first goal of the game put the visitors up, 2-1, at 13:54 of the first half.
A goal by Mallory Pope with just over a minute to go in the first frame would assure the contest of being tied heading into halftime, but Daugherty's second-half heroics sealed the win for Merrimack.
"All in all, this was a good road win against a very good team," Rounce said. "We are looking forward to working hard for Thursday's game against a talented Bentley team."
ESU held advantages in both shot attempts (21-13) and penalty corners (10-6), but Bergquist's stellar performance between the pipes factored in to the decision.
Merrimack opens Northeast-10 Conference play on Thursday, Sept. 6, as the Warriors travel to Bentley for a 7 p.m. showdown.
--
