For the second time in as many home games, Boston College field hockey found itself on the wrong side of a comeback.
After taking a 2–0 lead over No. 4 Louisville, No. 12 BC looked to be in the clear. But Louisville fought back, and BC missed big opportunities late in the game, falling 3–2 to the Cardinals (11–2, 3–0 Atlantic Coast), marking a third ACC loss for the Eagles (9–4, 1–3).
Tied 2–2 with 1:21 remaining in the fourth quarter, BC had a golden opportunity to deal the crushing blow to Louisville. On a penalty corner, BC’s Sarah Johnson sent the ball into play, where it reached Fusine Govaert who hit it with everything she had, only for Louisville goalie Mila de Kuijer to make an excellent save.
This shot would turn out to be BC’s last scoring opportunity of the day, as overtime proved to be all Louisville.
Wasting no time at all, Louisville turned a quick shot into a penalty corner after just 22 seconds of the sudden death period. Although BC stopped Louisville’s first two shots, the third shot, after just over two minutes, proved to be too much for BC to handle, and a goal sent the Eagles packing.
The amount of action at the end of the game was a complete flip of the first quarter, when neither team registered a single shot.
“We lacked the energy, we lacked the intensity from that first quarter,” BC head coach Kelly Doton said. “They didn’t make us pay for it. It was still 0–0, but you can’t give up 2–0 leads. It’s the second time that it’s happened and we still won’t learn from the first mistake.”
Louisville started the second quarter strong, forcing back-to-back penalty corners that BC’s defense fought off.
BC scored the first goal of the game off of a penalty corner, when Johnson snuck it past Louisville’s goalie after a scrum in front of the net.
It took until five minutes into the third quarter for BC’s Sky Caron to score goal number two, which came as a result of BC’s first penalty stroke of the season.
“I think Louisville is a great defense,” Doton said. “Going into the game, they played 13 games and only gave up 11 goals. I didn’t know how many opportunities we were going to have. … I mean putting two on the board against a really good team, you know, hopefully gives you a chance to win.”
The two-goal lead started to evaporate two minutes later, as Louisville’s Aimee Plumb would refuse to let a Louisville scoring opportunity die, and got one past BC goaltender Jonna Kennedy.
“Two [to] nothing is the worst lead to have in any sport because they can come right back,” Doton said. “2–0 goes to 2–1 very quickly, so I knew that they weren’t going to be done. Regardless, I know that they’re going to keep fighting because that’s who they are, and you know they won that game.”
Despite shifting momentum, BC nearly brought the lead back to two goals, when an apparent goal was overturned upon review.
A misdirected pass a few minutes later set the ball up on a silver platter for Louisville’s Charlie van Oirschot, who wasted no time converting a one-on-one chance against Kennedy to tie it up.
“We have the opportunities there, and [I] just think, again, we just gotta clean up our defense and can’t be giving those goals away, especially those breakaways,” Doton said.
