Field Hockey: Waryas Nets OT Winner, Monks Tip Thomas

9/14/22 – Freshman Maya Waryas (Bellows Falls, Vt.) scored 55 seconds into overtime to lift Saint Joseph’s College (4-1) past Thomas College (2-2), 2-1, in an action-packed non-conference field hockey contest at the SJC Athletics Complex on Wednesday evening.

BOX: https://gomonks.com/sports/fh/2022-23/boxscores/20220914_y9pg.xml

HOW IT HAPPENED:

Both teams scored their regulation goals during a two-minute span midway through the second quarter. Sophomore midfielder Julia Reny (Gardiner, Maine) gave the Terriers a 1-0 lead with a tally following a scrum near the crease at the 20:03 mark and SJC senior Morgan Dalton (Livermore Falls, Maine) punched home the equalizer exactly two minutes later. After a penalty corner and several saves made by Thomas netminder Elise Syphers (Auburn, Maine), Dalton scored her first NCAA goal by batting a ball mid-air into the cage.

Both teams had numerous chances to put the go-ahead goal on the board, but the two second-year goalkeepers – Syphers and St. Joe’s sophomore Kassidy Collins (Gardiner, Maine) – preserved the stalemate with impressive saves, including a handful of the acrobatic variety.

The Terriers had the first chance to score in the 7v7 overtime frame and drew a penalty corner just 18 seconds into extra play. A blast by Reny from the top of the circle on the corner bid was kicked away by Collins and on the transition, Waryas – sprung free by a Abbie Jacques (Mount Vernon, Maine) feed – sprinted past several Thomas defenders and found the back of the net with an odd-angle shot to the left corner for the winner.

TEAM STATS:

Saint Joseph’s held the lead in shots (36-22) and shots on goal (29-17) while Thomas posted a 9-8 edge in penalty corners in the evenly matched contest.

THE KEEPERS:

Syphers almost singlehandedly kept her team in the game by making 25 saves in a losing bid while Collins turned away 14 shots in an equally impressive performance.

Both teams notched two defensive saves as well, as Kayci Faulkingham (Belfast, Maine) stopped two shots while SJC defenders Sadie Tirrell (Naples, Maine) and Dalton posted a save apiece.

HISTORICALLY SPEAKING:

With the victory, Saint Joseph’s improves to 20-9 all-time versus Thomas College and has now defeated the Terriers in 16-consecutive meetings dating back to the 2007 season.