While Margo Carlin of Boston College field hockey recently tallied her 100th career point, she’s not the only playmaker on the Eagles’ squad.
During Sunday’s home game against New Hampshire (6–3, 3–0 America East), five different Eagles found the back of the net in No. 11 BC’s (6–3, 1–1 Atlantic Coast) emphatic 5–1 win—its fourth win in its last five games. Junior midfielder Pia Serowik notched her first career goal in the win.
“That’s the goal, right—get as many people involved, whether they are a forward or midfield line, and I’m happy that they did it,” BC head coach Kelly Doton said.
BC’s defense held the Wildcats, the fifth-ranked team nationwide in goals per game, to just two shots on goal.
The Eagles’ offense, however, came out firing from the start of the game, dominating possession and outshooting the Wildcats 10–1 in the first quarter. Despite this, BC couldn’t execute, and the first quarter ended scoreless.
UNH, meanwhile, struggled offensively the entire first half. The Wildcats’ goalkeeper Jemma Woods stymied much of the Eagles’ early offensive onslaught, totaling seven saves in the first half.
But Serowik broke the scoreless tie with 7:09 left in the second quarter. Serowik managed to tip Eva Kluskens’ shot into the back of the net to give BC a 1–0 advantage. BC took that lead into halftime, maintaining an advantage in time of possession, shots, and penalty corners.
UNH had two penalty corner chances toward the end of the second quarter, but BC denied both, capping off a dominant Eagles half. Yet BC’s offense did not capitalize on its offensive first-half chances, scoring only once off 16 shots.
“Keep going,” Doton said of her squad’s mentality heading into the second half. “I mean, [Woods] was an aggressive goalkeeper, so we knew that if we got closer she was going to come out and put pressure on us. We just have to keep going and at some point they are going to start falling, and then they did.”
Doton was right, and BC’s offensive explosion started with 4:28 left in the third quarter. Claire Jones netted BC’s second half goal on a penalty corner as the graduate forward ripped a shot from about 13 yards to the top right corner to double the Eagles’ lead.
The scoring continued less than three minutes later as Kluskens finished off a firm pass from Klara Mueffelmann with an easy tap into an open goal, putting BC ahead 3–0.
UNH had its own chance in the third quarter to get on the board. Forward Tasmin Cookman had a one-on-one opportunity against BC goalkeeper Caroline Kelly, who lunged at Cookman, missed the poke check, and left Cookman with an open net. But BC midfielder Peyton Hale hustled back and blocked Cookman’s shot to save a goal.
The Wildcats finally broke through in the fourth quarter following a Nicole Poulakis goal. Poulakis pushed the ball in transition to get past Kelly and cut BC’s lead to 3–1.
But BC swiftly responded with two late goals. Carlin deflected in a shot from Kendall Hanlon with 7:59 left to put BC up three goals, marking Carlin’s fifth straight game with a goal.
Kara Heck then scored to make it a 5–1 game with 6:18 remaining, sealing the win for BC.
