Hammond's Four Goals Lead Field Hockey's 10-Goal Effort; Warriors Roll at Southern Connecticut, 10-4
Links: Box Score
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Led by a career-high four-goal game from junior Rylie Hammond (Phillipston, Mass.), the Merrimack College field hockey team scored five goals in each half at Southern Connecticut State on Wednesday night to roll past the Owls by a score of 10-4 in one of the highest scoring games in program history.
The Basics
Score: Merrimack 10, Southern Conn. 4
Records: Merrimack (3-5, 3-2 NE-10) | Southern Conn. (2-9, 0-5 NE-10)
Location: Jess Dow Field |New Haven, Conn.
How It Happened
- 2' – Hammond made it known immediately what kind of game she intended to have on Tuesday night, scoring less than two minutes into the game on the Warriors' first penalty corner attempt. She would gather a rebound after an initial shot and send it into the net for the early score.
- 14' – Sophomore Mary McNeil (Canton, Mass.) also registered a multi-goal game in the 10-goal effort, scoring her first on a nice individual effort just over 12 minutes after Hammond opened the scoring to give the Warriors a 2-0 lead.
- 22' – Just 21 minutes into the game, the Warriors would line up sixth penalty corner of the first half. Merrimack would again hop on an initial save as freshman Miranda Judd (Lebanon, N.H.) quickly slapped a rebound by the keeper for the first goal of her career and third of the game for Merrimack.
- 30' – On the Warriors' following penalty corner seven minutes later, senior Nicole Bradley (Essex, Mass.) would make it 4-0, receiving the ball after some crisp passing off the corner and firing a nice shot into the lower left of the net for her second of the season.
- 32' – McNeil would make it three straight conversions on penalty corners two minutes later, as she ran into the action after delivering the corner and found the back of the net for her second of the game and a 5-0 Warrior lead at half.
- 46' – Though she wasn't done, Hammond would have the first hat trick of her career in the books just 10 minutes into the second half. The junior scored twice in a 2:46 span, giving the Warriors seven unanswered goals in the first 46 minutes of the game.
- 48'-57' – Southern Connecticut would catch a big wave of momentum in the middle of the second half, going on a four-goal scoring run of their own to cut their deficit to three and make it 7-4 with 13:02 remaining. The four goals would come in a nine minute span.
- 67' – After sitting at a less comfortable three-goal lead for a brief stretch, Merrimack would quickly strike for two goals in 1:55 from sophomore Delaney Yule (Southbury, Conn.) and junior Taylor Simpson (York, Maine) to put their lead back to five goal with less than four minutes to play.
- 68' – Hammond would cap off the 10-goal contest with her fourth of the game with 2:25 remaining, putting home a rebound to give Merrimack the double-digit goal total.
Inside The Numbers
- The Warriors 10-goal game on Wednesday is the most goals in a single game for the program since at least 2000 season. Merrimack fired a staggering 50 shots in the contest, including 35 on goal.
- Hammond's four-goal, eight-point game was a career night for the junior, as she doubled her previous career-highs of two goals and four points in a game. She now sits tied for fifth in the NE-10 with a team-leading six goals on the season.
- On top of her two goals, McNeil added two assists in the game to improve her season totals to four goals and four assists for 12 points.
- Shots: MC – 50 // SCSU - 11
- SOG: MC – 35 // SCSU - 6
Up Next
The Warriors return home on Saturday when they host #9 American International for an NE-10 matchup at 6:00 p.m.
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