After dropping their second straight Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game on Friday, Oct. 16 to Rider 5-4, the Stags returned home to host Columbia. The Stags scored four goals for the second consecutive game, but it wasn’t enough as they dropped their fourth consecutive game to the Lions 7-4.

Fairfield jumped to an early lead in the ninth minute of the game when both Jamie Appelberg ’18 and Ann Burgoyne ’17 led a one-on-two breakaway against Columbia’s goalkeeper. Appelberg found Burgoyne in front of the net as she shot it past the goalkeeper’s reach and into the net for the early 1-0 lead.

Less than five minutes later, Columbia would tie the game after a penalty corner. Columbia did not stop there as they began to knock down goals scoring three consecutive goals to increase their lead to 4-1. Two of the four goals by Columbia came off the stick of Katie Ruesterholz, who would add another goal in the second half to give her three goals in the game.

With five minutes remaining in the first half, Fairfield would score a goal off a Kaitlyn Taddeo ’16 penalty corner. After a string of passes, the ball found its way toward the stick of Burgoyne who connected for her second goal of the day.  Burgoyne scored two goals in Friday’s loss to Rider, which makes it two consecutive games where she scored two goals.

“Definitely gave us momentum going into the second half, we cut their shots on goal in the second half. They had seven [in the first half], then went to four [in the second half]. We doubled ours as we went from five [in the first half] to 10 [in the second half]. That second goal was really important to carry the momentum into the second half,” said head coach Jackie Kane of the team’s second goal.

With less than 10 minutes into the start of the second half, Columbia scored once again to increase their lead to three. But the Stags answered back with two goals to cut the lead to one. Fairfield’s third goal came from Erin Buckley ’18 after she gathered the rebound off Columbia’s goalkeeper. Junior Julie de Paeuw followed with a goal of her own after regrouping a loose ball as the Stags trailed 5-4 with less than 12 minutes remaining in the game.

But Columbia would answer back with two goals of their own to give them the 7-4 victory.

“I saw that we had a lot of opportunities, Columbia was luckier than us today. Their shots on goal were going in and ours was just going wide. It wasn’t that we were doing anything wrong, we’re doing everything right, the girls we working hard. We had plenty of opportunities, we were just not getting the ball in the net and Columbia was,” said Kane of the loss.

Fairfield will continue its home stand with two MAAC games starting this Friday, Oct. 23 against Bryant and Sunday, Oct. 25 against Siena.

“We’ve got to keep working hard in practice and believing in each other and working hard, working together and following the game plan. We’ll get there, we have two doubleheaders next weekend and hopefully we can break the curse of this field,” said Kane, as the Stags look to improve their home record as they’ve only had one win at home so far this season.

       

 

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