Ithaca Defeats Elmira To Conclude Season
By Paul Hershey
ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca field hockey team (5-11, 3-4 Empire 8) concluded its season with a 6-1 victory over Elmira (2-13,-1, 2-5 Empire 8) in the Empire 8 Conference finale Saturday afternoon at Higgins Stadium. The six-goal output was the Bombers’ highest of the season, surpassing the four they scored against both Morrisville and Nazareth.
Six different Ithaca players scored the goals, including freshman midfielder Leigh Martino (Windsor/Windsor), who also had one assist. Senior forward Heather Kozimor (Hackettstown/Vienna, N.J.) dished out two assists in the game.
Elmira got on the scoreboard first just over six minutes into the game, but the Bombers controlled play from there, tallying three goals in the first half and tacking on three more in the second.
Martino’s goal off of rebound from a shot by senior forward Jessica Dillon (Mahopac/Mahopac) tied the game midway through the opening half. The goal was Martino’s first of the season.
Sophomore forward Lindsay Flanagan (Cicero-North Syracuse/Cicero) then put the Bombers ahead with just over six minutes left in the half when she put home a rebound on the right side of the crease.
Kozimor, whose shot led to Flanagan’s goal, also set another one up less than a minute later. Receiving a penalty corner on the left side of the arc, she sent a ball toward the goal and junior forward Julia Conroy (Westfield/Westfield, N.J.) deflected it by the Elmira goalkeeper to make it 3-1.
Ithaca then struck quickly in the second half when sophomore forward Katie Kennedy (Cicero-North Syracuse/Clay) ripped in a shot from the top of the arc for an unassisted goal. Freshman back Aliza Kamman (Mount Abraham Union/Lincoln, Vt.) then notched her first career goal off of an assist by Martino to increase the lead to 5-1. Dillon then capped the scoring with her fourth goal of the season, on an assist by sophomore midfielder Andrea Pace (Hereford/Monkton, Md.) with nine minutes left in the second half.
The Bombers totaled 27 shots in the game, while allowing just seven. Ithaca also had 13 penalty corners to just one for the Soaring Eagles.
Junior goalkeeper Kelly Singleton (Irondequoit/ Rochester) made her 16th start of the season and notched the victory, recording two saves. Junior goalkeeper Samantha Grassi (Rondout Valley/Kerhonkson) played the second half and made three saves.
Dillon, Kennedy, Flanagan and Conroy each finished the season with four goals, second on the team to Kozimor’s five.
Box Score and Play-by-Play