Hermanofski's Third Overtime Winner Pushes Wilkes Field Hockey Past Cross-town Rival King's 3-2
EDWARDSVILLE – First year forward Morgan Hermanofski (Shickshinny, PA/Northwest Area) struck again in the clutch for the Colonels as she scored her third overtime goal of the season for the Wilkes University field hockey team as they defeated cross-town rival King's College 3-2 on Faculty/Staff Appreciation Night at Schmidt Stadium Tuesday in non-conference action.
Wilkes improved its record to 5-2 overall on the season with its third overtime win. King's remained winless at 0-7 after its comeback bid fell short.
A scoreless first quarter saw Wilkes control the majority of the play, outshooting King's 6-0 over the 15 minutes.
Following a penalty corner, Bridget Rosenfeld (Massapequa, NY/Massapequa) scored her third goal of the season to give the Colonels a 1-0 lead at the 19:30 mark. Morgan Millard (Bloomsburg, PA/Bloomsburg Area) collected her team-leading fifth assist of the season as she played the ball across the face of the goal to Rosenfeld at the far post as she slammed the ball past the Monarchs goalkeeper.
Wilkes took the 1-0 lead into halftime and held a 9-1 advantage in total shots at the break.
The Colonels extended their lead just over 10 minutes into the third quarter as Olivia Gayoski (Forty Fort, PA/Wyoming Valley West) scored her third goal of the year following a penalty corner for the Blue and Gold. Gayoski made a move in the middle of the scoring area by a defender before putting the ball into the cage for the 2-0 lead.
At the end of the third quarter Wilkes led 2-0 and held an 11-2 shots edge.
King's turned things on in the fourth quarter, outshooting Wilkes 4-1 and finding goals by Emma Clark at 52:42 and Shaylee Heffron at 54:28 to tie the game at 2-2. The Colonels had two penalty corner attempts in the final 2:30 of regulation but were unable to capitalize as the game went into overtime.
With play at 7 on 7 now the Colonels were able to survive a green card on Rosenfeld and then were able to take advantage after a yellow card on Emma Bealla of King's. Hermanofski played the hero again as she found herself behind the defense and was able to get her shot to go between the pads of Grace Venis and trickle into the back of the cage for the 3-2 win with 3:00 minutes left in the first overtime. For Hermanofski it was her team-leading seventh goal of the season.
Wilkes held a 14-7 shots advantage and an 11-5 shots-on-goal edge in the game. The Colonels also had 10 penalty corners compared to four for the Monarchs. Carly Eidle (East Greenville, PA/Upper Perkiomen) made three saves as she earned her fifth win of the season for Wilkes. Venis made eight saves in the losing effort for King's.
The win gave Wilkes head coach Ashley Irwin a victory over her alma mater.
The Colonels are back into Landmark Conference play on Saturday when they travel to Selinsgrove, Pa. to face Susquehanna University at 1:00 p.m.
