Rindge, N.H- The New Haven Field Hockey team headed up to Rindge, New Hampshire to take on the Ravens of Franklin Pierce, for their second conference game of the year, where they fell short in a hard fought 5-4 loss. With this loss the Chargers move to a 1-4 overall record on the season and move to 1-1 in conference play.

Franklin Pierce was the first to find a shot on goal, pushing their offense into the Chargers defense end within the first two minutes of the game. After clearing the ball out of the defensive end, the Chargers would find their first offensive run of the game, resulting in two back-to-back penalty corners and junior Sophia Ruh (Ocean City, N.J./Ocean City) finding the first shot on goal for New Haven.

The Chargers offense remained strong, pushing up the field and challenging the Ravens backfield. In the sixth minute of the game the Chargers would find a penalty corner, Kat Trammel (Sandy Hook, Conn./Newtown) inserting the ball up to right side of the circle finding Femke Boers (The Hague, Netherlands/Brasschaat, Belgium). Boers with a pass to her right off to Johannah Lee (State College, Pa./State College Area), who would be pressured by the corner unit of Franklin Pierce and forced to pass back to Boers. Boers receiving the ball and taking it to the baseline, would find herself a reverse shot, opening the scoring and giving the Chargers their first lead of the game.  

The rest of the half would remain, back and forth between New Haven and Franklin Pierce, however there would be no capitalizing on the offensive movements from either team, keeping the Chargers leading by one as they headed to half time. The blue and gold lead in all columns aside from saves in the first half, finding nine shots, six on goal, and six penalty corners. On the defensive end, goalkeeper Hallie Reiger (Oklahoma City, Okla./Casady School) would face three shots on goal and save all three, keeping the Ravens looking for their first goal.

Coming off the break of halftime, both offenses looked to find another goal. Franklin Pierce with the first push of the New Haven defense, getting a penalty corner thirty seconds into the game, but New Haven would be the first to score in the half. After a cleared penalty corner by the Chargers, Abby Nixon (Wrentham, Mass./King Phillip Regional) would find herself a goal, moving the score to 2-0.

Within a minute, would be the opening of a very big break for Franklin Pierce. On a penalty corner the Ravens would find their first goal from Rebecca Phillips, lessening New Haven's lead to one. The Chargers would respond back once again, a minute later when Katherine Trammel would find her third goal of the season.

From then on the back and forth of goal scoring would continue. Franklin Pierce goals by Silver Clukey and another from Rebecca Phillips, would add two more for the Ravens. Eliza Caven (Caledon, Ontario/Humberview Secondary) finding her first goal of her career to throw another on for the Chargers. It would not be until the 43^rd minute where the Ravens would even up with the Chargers on a goal from Caity Hazley and taking the lead in the 44^th minute on a goal frm Silver Clukey.

With less than a minute remaining in the game, the Chargers would attempt to find their way up the field to even up the score and send the game into overtime but would ultimately fall short. Aside from a plethora of goal scoring, the Chargers would find a total of 14 shots, 11 fallingon goal, and 9 penalty corners on the evening. The goalkeepers for the Chargers, Ally Saigh (Grosse Point Woods, Mich./Grosse Point North) and Hallie Reiger (Oklahoma City, Okla./Casady School), would accumulate five saves on the evening.

New Haven will put this one to rest and look forward to their next matchup, Saint Thomas Aquinas. The Spartans will head down to Dellacamera Field for a match under the lights on Wednesday, September 20^th. The game is set to begin at 7:00 p.m. and you can watch all of the action on the Chargers Sports Network on NE10 NOW.