The field hockey team suffered its worst loss of the season on Wednesday night, falling hard to No. 16 Boston College in a lopsided 9-2 affair. The Bears let their 1-0 lead slip away in a big way, giving up eight consecutive goals while being outshot 21-7. The loss sends Bruno back to the drawing board and back to .500 at 5-5 (2-1 Ivy).
The Bears came into the game riding a wave of stingy defense, having let in just six goals in their last five games while going 4-1. The only loss during that time was a close 3-2 match with No. 12 Northeastern University back on Sept. 28. But on Wednesday night, the team that looked so formidable just days ago was badly overmatched.
The game started well enough, when at the 5:34 mark the team's co-captains, Kristen Vincent '06 and Brooke Townsend '06, teamed up for a goal. Vincent took the pass off of a corner and fed Townsend for her second goal of the season. It was an uncharacteristically early goal, as the Bears have struggled mightily in first halves even during their recent hot streak.
The Bears managed to hold their lead for another 7:50 until Boston College began its relentless offensive assault, which started when midfield/back Kristen Madden scored on an unassisted shot off of a penalty corner. Madden was one of three Eagles to register multiple goals in the game.
Minutes later, Bob Dirks tallied another unassisted goal. Three more goals were scored by the two teammates, and with 18 seconds remaining before intermission, Kathleen Murphy scored the first of her three goals on the day. The half mercifully ended with the Bears down 6-1.
Brown could not stop the Eagle attack in the second half either. Caitlyn Young scored BC's 7th goal with just over 17 minutes left to play. Moments later, goalie Kristen Hodavance '08 was lifted from the game in favor of Evelyn Brosi '07. Hodovance left the match with 12 saves.
After Murphy scored another goal to make it 8-1, Andrea Posa '08 scored her first goal of the season on another penalty corner to end the Eagles' run.
Although Brown was still outscored in the second half, the game was more even, as the Bears were only outshot 8-6 and were even with the Eagles on penalty corners.
Murphy completed her hat trick with just over two minutes left to make the score 9-2, rounding out an amazing offensive day by BC, and further highlighting the defensive collapse by Brown.
Due to the late finish of the game, the team was unavailable for comment.
The Bears look to recover from the blowout loss on Saturday, as they take on Princeton at 12 p.m. on Warner Roof as part of Homecoming.
