Thriller On Top Of The Hill – Wickens Scores OT Winner For Raiders

Nashua, NH – In the final 3 minute frame of overtime, Hannah Wyatt (sophomore, Merrimack, NH) and Rebecca Wickens (sophomore, Tyngsboro, MA) would net back to back goals to drive the Rivier Raiders to a thrilling 20 – 19 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) home field win. 60 minutes was not enough time for Rivier and the Monks of Saint Joseph's College to decide a winner. It would take an additional 6 minutes of overtime to finalize the outcome. In a game of streaks, it came down to 2 unanswered goals by the Raiders over the final 2 minutes and 52 seconds of play.

Over the first half, the teams traded runs of goals. The Monks jumped on the score board early with a strike just 37 seconds into the game, on a goal from Anneka Adame. The Raiders answered just 1 minute later, with Wickens converting after a good set of possession by the Raiders. Saint Joseph's tallied the next three goals, on strikes by Cassie Diplock, Kristin McCombs, and Erika Waterhouse to take a 4 – 1 lead. The raiders responded with six unanswered goals to pull ahead 7 – 4. Wyatt and Wickens tallied two each, and Lauren Brett (junior, Otisfield, ME) and Jessica Amaral (sophomore, E. Providence, RI) found their way into the scoring column on the night. Rivier's first goal as they worked their way back in was a nice passing play with Brett finding Wyatt, and she tucked it home to cut it to 4 – 2.

Rivier's six unanswered goals included some impressive strikes. As the Raiders offense settled into their rhythm, Wyatt opened up an office behind the Monks net. At the 20:43 mark, after the Raiders had worked the ball in the offensive area, she held the ball to the left of the goal behind the net, and placed a nice pass to Vanessa Viola (sophomore, Nashua, NH), but Viola's bid was turned aside by Elizabeth Giacchino. 33 seconds later, Brett made a nice run on a line to the left side of the goal and fired a shot from her left shoulder and placed it past the Monks goalie. At the 19:14 mark, with Wyatt again running the attack from behind the goal, this time she was able to take advantage of her previous sharp passes. With the Monks defense sagging away to respect her playmaking ability, Wyatt cut in from her space behind the goal on the left, beat her defender, got to the front, and in motion twisted around a defender to get her shot away, and twinkle the twine. It was one of the nicer goals of the night. Only 44 seconds later, Wickens may have turned in the goal of the night though, on a great individual effort. With a ground ball free just outside of the goal area, Wickens rushed into the scrum, snatched up the ground ball, immediately turned a 360 spin to lose a defender, got 1 v 1 in front of goal, and placed a snapped shot past Giacchino. Not to be outdone, Amaral tallied a fierce free position shot at the 15:34 mark. Amaral took two steps in and ripped a shot from 9 yards that had the net rippling before the Monks goalie even reacted.

Saint Joseph's responded with three goals of their own on two strikes from Diplock and one from Amelia Santos to tie the score at 7 with 11:19 to play in the first half. The teams traded goals before Rivier went on another four goal run with two strikes from Amaral, and one each from Brett and Savannah Neuwirt (freshmen, Newbury, NH). Neuwirt's goal was set-up by a great little touch pass, eight yard lob from Wickens, that she dropped over a defender to Neuwirt. Amaral's second goal in this run was a sharp one. Brett passed to her from out wide and she received it on the half turn, faked a spin to her left, got the defender to bite, and spun right and fired home. Saint Joseph's punched back with two goals, but Brett tallied a nice strike tucking away a nice low shot and picking the bottom corner to cap off a strong run from right to left across the Monks defense, and send the Raiders into the half with a 13 – 10 lead.

Caleigh Bertolaccini (junior, Chelmsford, MA) was called on to make a nice tough save at the 26:07 mark of the 2nd half, blocking Diplock's free position attempt. Over the first 15 minutes of the 2nd half, the Raiders would build their lead to 17 – 11 on two strikes each from Brett and Wickens. At the 15:42 mark, Wickens tallied yet another nice goal on the night, making a great run with a burst of speed from left to right straight across the face of the goal and releasing a good, quick shot in stride that beat Haley Nason in net for the Monks. However, down 17 – 11, the Monks clawed back, striking for five goals in 2 minutes 46 seconds, and tightening the score to 17 – 16. Again it was Diplock leading the way, putting home four of the goals on the five goal swing.

Rivier held the one goal lead going into the final 10 minutes of the 2nd half. Rivier converted a man up goal at the 6:11 mark, with a nice pass from Brett to Wyatt. Wyatt made a nice run to get open and then had a sharp turn to open up space to shoot. She put a good shot on goal and gave the Raiders a two goal cushion. The twists and turns in the game were still ahead, and the Monks hung around. At 4:09, Amelia Santos fired home to cut the Raiders lead to one. With 1:04 to go, Erika Waterhouse took a feed at the top of the crease and turned and fired home to tie the game at 18. Over the last minute, there was three big defensive plays with the game on the line. Kirstin McCombs had a free position restart with 32.4 seconds left, but a Raider defender got a stick on her shot as she released and the shot went wide. With 9 seconds to play Viola made a great 40 yard run and fired on goal, but her shot was blocked. And, in the games last turn, with 3.5 seconds to play, Amaral had a restart attempt, she fired a hard shot on goal, and Nason turned in a great save to send the game to OT.

In OT, the Raiders D came up big again. At 1:08 of the first frame, Saint Joseph's Lauren Bailey had a restart from the top of the crease, but the Raiders cut her space quickly and she was unable to go to goal. The visiting Monks took the lead at the 36 second mark, with Diplock converting a free position attempt with a waist high shot.

The Raiders tied the score at 19 just 8 seconds into the 2nd OT frame. Brett took the draw, Amaral found the ball in the air, turned quickly and delivered a pass to Wyatt. From there, Wyatt did the work. She split two defenders running left to right, and shot shoulder high into the goal. That set the scene for Wickens winner. With the Raiders controlling the draw, Wyatt went to work in her area behind the goal. Wickens made a good cut to get open at the top of the crease, Wyatt delivered the ball, and Wickens let a good, sharp shot fly, and put the Raiders ahead for good with 1:42 to play.

The win pushes Rivier's record to 2 – 5, 1 – 4 in the GNAC, while the Monks sit at 6 – 4, 4 – 3 in GNAC. Rivier returns to action in a GNAC match at LaSalle on the 14th at 12:00 pm. Saint Joseph's returns to action on April 12th at Thomas College.