Johnson Wins it as
Time Expires with Third Goal of Night
Smithfield, R.I. - Freshman
Caitlan Johnson (Walpole, Mass.) scored her third
goal of the game with no time remaining to break a 3-3 tie and give
the Bryant Field Hockey team the walk-off 4-3 victory over Southern
Connecticut State Wednesday afternoon.
With the clock reading 0:00, the Bulldogs had one last chance to
avoid overtime on a corner. Laynie Sadler (Rehoboth,
Mass.) passed it in to Johnson who buried it with a rocket
of a shot past Owls goaltender Casey Sanford.
In a game the Bulldogs had to win to stabilize their playoff
position, they started off very poorly surrendering two goals in
the first 6:14 and quickly found themselves trailing by two.
Johnson cut that lead in half in the 31st minute,
firing another blistering shot into the net off a corner pass from
Sadler.
The Sadler-Johnson combo tied the game as well, as the freshman
sniper scored exactly the same way seven minutes later to tie it at
two.
Bryant got its first lead just five minutes later when
Courtney O'Brien (Tewksbury, Mass.) set up Sadler
for the go-ahead goal. It was Sadler's team-leading 12th
of the season.
The Owls never gave up though and tied it with under nine
minutes to play, as Jennifer Sousa found the ball in a scramble in
front of Kundayi Mawema (Hare, Zimbabwe) and put
it home for the tying goal.
But the Sadler-Johnson connection hooked up once more with no
time remaining, and the Owls' chance for an upset was ruined.
It was Johnson's first collegiate hat trick, and she now is
second on the team with eight goals. Sadler finished with five
points in the game (goal, three assists).
With the win, the Bulldogs distanced themselves from
seventh-place Assumption and have their eyes set on catching
fourth-place St. Michael's and fifth-place UMass-Lowell.
Bryant (10-7, 8-5 NE-10) will host first-place Stonehill Tuesday
at 7 p.m. in its regular-season finale.
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