Field Hockey Win Streak Snapped at E-Town, 2-0

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa.- The Juniata field hockey team traveled to Elizabethtown for a Saturday afternoon matchup with the Blue Jays. Alyssa Aichele scored twice for the hosts and Juniata was held with a goal for only the second time this season in a 2-0 E-Town win.

The two teams were scoreless in the first half. Juniata goalie Kylie Edwards (Danville, Pa./Danville) kept E-Town off the scoreboard as she came up with five saves in the frame. Her counterpart for the Blue Jays, Margo Donlin, stopped three shots in the cage.

The contest remained scoreless for over 17 minutes of the second half. Edwards came up with two big saves to thwart the Blue Jay attack. Elizabethtown, however, finally got through when Aichele received a pass from Jacki Hikes and scored from the center to put E-Town ahead 1-0.

Sarah Bilheimer (Bethlehem, Pa./Freedom) had two shots on goal for the Eagles in the final 7:24 of the game but one was turned away by Donlin while the other was saved by defender Renee Grill. Aichele added her second score of the day with just seven seconds left to play when an attempted cross was deflected by Edwards back to her at the left post.

Total shots favored Elizabethtown but only by small margin, 11-9. JC had six on goal while E-Town got nine. Bilheimer had a team-high five shots with four coming on goal. The Blue Jays led in penalty corners, 10-6.

"This was a strong conference match-up," said head coach Caroline Gillich. "We played well individually, but did not see our best team game out there. We had lots of opportunities to score and just missed out on making the most of those opportunities. We generated some good offensive runs and threats as did they. We need to combine better in our offensive 25."

Edwards finished with seven saves. Donlin had five saves.

The Eagles return home and will host Moravian this Tuesday night in a game that was rescheduled from October 10. The two teams square off at 7:30 p.m.

"Next week we have two conference match-ups and each of those is critical to us to secure a spot in the Conference Tournament," noted Gillich. "Every team is battling for that and we need to remember that going into every match."