Marguerite Chavez, Mary Nikish Key Stevens in 6-1 Win Over Ithaca
ITHACA, N.Y. (October 1, 2011) – Junior Marguerite Chavez and junior Mary Nikish each tallied two goals to help lift the Stevens Institute of Technology field hockey team to a 6-1 win at Ithaca College on Saturday. The victory is the fourth straight for the Ducks who improve to 5-4 overall and 2-1 in the Empire 8. Ithaca drops to 1-2 in the conference and 2-6 overall.
Like its win on Wednesday over a 6-1 University of Scranton team, the Ducks dominated this contest from start to finish, ending with a 29-9 edge in shots and an 18-5 advantage in penalty corners.
Neither team had the scoring touch in the first 19 minutes but the Ducks were able to break through in the 20th when sophomore Rachel Chavez found the back of the net with an unassisted tally. Chavez carried the ball into the circle from left-to-right and buried a shot from 10-yards out for her team-high seventh goal of the year.
Stevens made a 2-0 5:31 later when Nikish rang the bell with her third of 2011, lifting a shot past Ithaca goalie Kelly Singleton (Rochester, N.Y.), and the Ducks went into intermission with that two-goal lead.
Senior captain Jillian Price notched her third marker of the year after a penalty corner in which she started. Price inserted to sophomore Grace Ridge who returned the pass to the left post for the tap in.
Ithaca was able to get on the board with 26 minutes to play thanks to a tally from sophomore Sam English (Ocean, N.J.), but the Bombers were unable to get closer than two the rest of the way. Chavez scored her first of the game in the 52nd minute courtesy of a feed from Nikish on a play that began with a penalty corner. Her second came 8:15 later and put the Ducks up 5-1. The junior carried down the middle of the field before hammering a shot into the left corner of the cage for her fifth goal of the season.
The final margin came from Nikish and that was set up by a nice pass from Rachel Chavez. Chavez was able to slip the ball behind Singleton to Nikish for her fourth goal of the year.
The Ducks have been on fire offensively of late and have been winning as well. Stevens has tallied three or more goals in six consecutive games, five of which have been wins, and have tallied 29 times over that span.
Senior goalie Krysten Suarez earned the win in goal for Stevens, making two saves. Her counterpart, Singleton, made 15 stops. For the second game in a row, the Stevens defense was able to limit the oppositions chances with sophomore Katie Achilles, sophomore Megan Traub, and junior Samantha Weisman all turning in strong performances.