Early Offense Powers No. 21 Delaware Past Drexel

Friday, October 29

Philadelphia, PA

4:00 p.m.

University of Delaware

(10-7 (5-1CAA))

Drexel University

(5-14 (2-4CAA))

DELAWARE

Drexel

Photo by: Mark Campbell

10/29/2021 5:46:00 PM | Field Hockey

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - The No. 21 Delaware field hockey team (10-7, 5-1 CAA) had a hot start at Drexel (5-14, 2-4 CAA), scoring three goals in the first quarter in the Blue Hen's 7-3 win against the Dragons.

"A great team performance. Proud on how this team continues to improves on both sides of the ball," said head coach Rolf van de Kerkhof. "We played simple and efficient hockey, and executed the game plan. Thanks to our solid play we could utilize all of our players as part of our game day rotation."

In the first two minutes of the game, Morgan Rigual tipped in the ball on a long pass from Femke Strien outside of the circle, across the goal. Just two minutes later on a penalty corner, Ashlyn Carr scored on a deflection from a shot by Grace Hoepfner who was credited with the assist.

The Blue Hens closed out the first period with a goal from Ashley Iannuzzi, her first of the season. Iannuzzi received a pass from Kiki Oudshoorn and dribbled past the goalkeeper, hitting the back of the net.

With just under four minutes remaining in the first half, Julia Duffhuis extended the lead to four on her classic shot on a penalty corner with an assist from Strien. This marked Duffhuis' team-leading 13th goal of the season.

After a blazing first half, the Blue Hens put up two more goals at the beginning of the third period to make the score 6-0. Rigual scored her second goal of the day with an assist from Oudshoorn for Delaware's fifth goal of the day. Just 40 seconds later, Strien took the goalkeeper one-on-one to give the Blue Hens the six-goal lead in the 36th minute of the game.

Drexel managed to get on the board five minutes later to make the score 6-1, but Morgan Bradford made it a six-goal lead once again late in the third period with a powerful backhand shot past the keeper.

The Dragons had a brief spark in the fourth period, scoring twice to make the final score, 7-3.

Rigual and Strien led Delaware with four points each in the win. Starting goalkeeper Lizzie Gaebel had four saves in the first half, Eve Vickery had one save in the second half.

"We are looking to finish our regular season at UConn on Sunday and continue our overall team's growth from recent weeks so we are well prepared to open CAA Championship Tournament action at Rullo Stadium next Friday."

The Blue Hens hit the road for the last time in the regular season to take on No. 20 UConn in Storrs, Conn. at 12 p.m. Sunday.

For the latest on the Delaware field hockey program, follow the Blue Hens on Twitter @DelawareFH and Instagram @Delaware_FH and like "Delaware Field Hockey" on Facebook.