No. 3 Houghton and No. 4 Utica Earn Victories in First Round of 2022 Empire 8 Field Hockey Tournament

Field Hockey | 11/2/2022 8:14:35 PM

No. 3 seed Houghton University and fourth-seeded Utica University earned victories in the opening round of the 2022 Empire 8 Field Hockey Championship Tournament on Wednesday, Nov. 2. Houghton defeated No. 6 seed Keuka College, 4-1, while Utica knocked off No. 5 Washington & Jefferson College, 3-0. Houghton's win was the first Empire 8 Tournament win for the Highlanders in program history.

Utica will head to top seed Hartwick College in the first Empire 8 Semifinal on Friday, Nov. 4 at 4 p.m., while Houghton will make the trip to No. 2 seed St. John Fisher for the second semifinal game at 7 p.m. Earlier this season, Hartwick earned a 3-1 win over Utica at Gaetano Stadium on Oct. 12, while St. John Fisher defeated Houghton by a score of 3-1 at Growney Stadium, also on Oct. 12.

NO. 3 HOUGHTON 4, NO. 6 KEUKA 1
Houghton won its firat Empire 8 Field Hockey Tournament game in program history by a score of 4-1 over Keuka Wednesday evening. The Highlanders improved to 13-5 with the win, while Keuka had its season end with a 6-13 mark.

Sarah Retz opened the scoring in the first quarter for Houghton, while Cedar Smith and Jace Hunzinger tallied second quarter goals to give the hosts a 3-0 lead at the intermission. Erin Patterson would get the Wolves on the board in the third quarter but Ashlee Beck with squash any chance of a Keuka comeback with a key insurance goal with just under 10 minutes left in regulation.

Houghton out-shot Keuka, 25-5 overall. Keuka goalkeeper Jordan Nichols made 14 saves in defeat, while Houghton's Madison Tadusz made three saves.

NO. 4 UTICA 3, NO. 5 WASHINGTON & JEFFERSON 0
Utica is headed to its second-straight Empire 8 Semifinal after earning a 3-0 shutout win over the Washington & Jefferson Presidents in the E8 First Round. Utica improved to 8-9, while Washington & Jefferson has its season end with a 6-10 mark.

Through the early goings of the first quarter, W&J was able to put a pair of shots on cage and draw three penalty corners before the Pioneers could settle in offensively. However, a save by Lyla Cushman (Holland Patent, NY/Holland Patent) and a defensive save by Madison Ranalli (Cicero, NY/Cicero-North Syracuse) kept the Presidents off the board. 
 
Late in the 12th minute the Pioneers drew their second corner of the game. Following a missed shot by Kylee Wojciechowski (Holland Patent, NY/Holland Patent) from close range, Shannon Jedreicich (Deer Park, NY/Half Hollow Hills East) was there to clean up and score her fifth goal of the year for a 1-0 Utica lead. 
 
The Pioneers remained ahead 1-0 midway through the second quarter when the team drew another corner. Emily Frank (Johnstown, NY/Johnstown) received a pass from Wojciechowski near the top of the arc and fired a bullet into the back of the cage for what was her first career goal as well as a 2-0 advantage for Utica. Although W&J also had five corner attempts, the Pioneers held the visitors to just two second quarter shots to lead 2-0 at the break. 
 
Utica remained in offensive control throughout the third quarter as the team outshot the Presidents 4-0. On the Pioneers' third look of the third frame, Alyssa Pisano (Hopewell Junction, NY/Arlington) put the ball through a tight window to find Alanna Fragapane (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy) just yards away from goal and assist the freshman on her seventh tally of the year. Fragapane's goal also came in a short-handed situation for the team following a Jedreicich green card. 
 
From there, the Pioneers limited W&J to one shot, which came in the fourth quarter, and wind down the final 20 minutes of play to secure the first round win.