GENEVA, N.Y.—In the end, the wait was worth it.
The William Smith College field hockey team needed double overtime to defeat St. John Fisher College 5-4, giving the Herons' Sophie Riskie '07 a win in her head coaching debut.
Senior
Lea Mateo Medina scored the game-winner in the 72nd minute off a penalty corner. Senior
Elizabeth Jacobia inserted the corner to Mateo Medina at the top of the circle. Her strike deflected off a defender's stick and took a long, looping arc to the cage, just out of the reach of goalie Sophia Trozzi.
Sophomore
Sofia Pattillo scored twice for William Smith (1-0) while Jacobia added a goal and an assist. Junior
Lauren Jackson also notched a goal for the Herons. Sophomore goalie
Kristen McCormick made four saves to earn the win, while junior defender
Mary Kate Breward came up with a clutch defensive save in the first overtime.
Molly Fisher produced a hat trick for St. John Fisher (0-1). Bre Socker chipped in a goal and an assist. Trozzi finished with eight saves.
Fisher opened the night's scoring less than three minutes in, but Jackson's penalty stroke goal less than two minutes before the end of the first quarter made it a tie game after one.
William Smith controlled the second quarter, owning a 6-1 advantage in shots as Jacobia scored off a cross from junior
Mackenzie Wodka early and Pattillo, assisted by first-year
Rebecca Mantione, tallied about six minutes before halftime, sending the home team into the break with a 3-1 lead.
Socker made it a one-goal contest with a blistering shot off a corner early in the third quarter, but Pattillo and Mantione teamed up for another Heron goal less than a minute later to restore the two-goal lead.
Fisher scored twice in the fourth quarter to force overtime. The second goal came with just 1.5 seconds remaining in regulation. With time slipping away, Socker fired a cross from outside the circle in the direction of Fisher, who redirected the pass into the lower left corner of the cage.
Early in the first overtime, St. John Fisher had numbers going into the circle. McCormick made an aggressive move, meeting the play at the top of the circle. She slid into the ball, which deflected away and onto the stick of Audrey Grieb, who shot on net. While McCormick's charge to the top, slowed the Cardinals' rush, it also gave Breward a chance to get to the goal line to preserve the tie with a poised defensive save.
William Smith finished the match with an 18-9 shot advantage and an 8-5 edge in penalty corners, including 3-0 in overtime.
The Herons will make their first road trip of the year, when they visit No. 15 Ursinus on Saturday, Sept. 4 at noon. St. John Fisher will return home to host Ithaca (1-0) also at noon on Saturday.
