Entering Sunday’s matchup against Connecticut, No. 12 Boston College field hockey hadn’t conceded a loss to a team ranked outside the top 10. The Eagles had only recorded one regulation loss, against then-No. 1 North Carolina and four overtime losses against then-No. 2 Northwestern, then-No. 3 Maryland, then-No. 5 Duke, and then-No. 10 Syracuse, respectively.
That pattern continued when BC (9–5, 1–3 Atlantic Coast) defeated the Huskies 4–1 (5–9, 2–3 Big East) on Sunday. Two-goal performances from Margo Carlin and Elisa Brauel-Jahnke propelled the Eagles to victory.
With both teams eager to prove themselves, the first quarter got underway in a feisty series of events. Six minutes into the contest, a foul on UConn led to a Carlin penalty corner. The corner resulted in the game’s first shot of the game—a rifle from senior Peyton Hale—which didn’t find the back of the net. Another penalty corner for the Eagles opened up another opportunity to score, but to no avail.
The rest of the quarter passed with no penalties or goals.
At the start of the second frame, it became quickly apparent that BC wouldn’t relent despite not scoring in the first period. Barely six minutes passed until Carlin potted her 10th goal of the season and first of the game, making the score 1–0 in BC’s favor.
As the second quarter came to an end, the Huskies tried to even the score with an attempt on goal after being handed a penalty corner, but graduate student and goalkeep Caroline Kelly saved the incoming shot.
The second quarter ended with the Eagles in the lead at a score of 1–0 due to Carlin’s tally and Kelly’s quick reflexes.
After halftime, both the Eagles and the Huskies appeared even more greedy to score.
Three minutes into the frame, Carlin scored again, which marked her 11th goal of the season and second of the matchup. Eva Kluskens registered the assist for Carlin, who pushed BC into a 2–0 advantage.
UConn quickly countered and piled on three consecutive shots on goal, neither of which were successful. UConn also received a penalty corner at the 5:56 mark of the third quarter and fired a shot on goal that missed by inches.
A minute later, the Eagles stole the ball and ran it down the field. The ball filtered to the stick of freshman Brauel-Jahnke, who lifted her first goal of the season and bumped BC’s lead up to 3–0.
With 1:38 left in the third quarter, it looked as though the Huskies would head into the fourth and final quarter with zero points under their belt, but a corner penalty allowed for UConn to score. Sol Simone’s individual effort finally gave UConn the goal it needed. Although rebuttal was made by BC head coach Kelly Doton, the referees sided in UConn’s favor and the third quarter ended at a margin of 3–1 on the Eagles’ side.
With the Huskies down by two scores with just 15 minutes left in regulation, they entered the fourth quarter with a sense of urgency. The Eagles, though, scored three minutes into the frame with another Brauel-Jahnke shot and an assist from senior Kara Heck.
Although UConn made a valiant effort to shut down the Eagles during the remaining time in the fourth quarter, all three of their attempted shots on goal were saved by Kelly, and the game ended with a final score of 4–1.
