Field hockey dumps No. 19 Drexel

On the first day of classes, freshmen often have a tough time finding their way around. But a group of freshmen — inexperienced but talented — shined for the field hockey team in a 6-0 rout of No. 19 Drexel (5-2) at 1952 Stadium.

No. 13 Princeton (2-0) outshot the Dragons by an astounding margin of 40-4, and pulled away in the second half, even as many Tiger starters rested.

"I'm really pleased," head coach Beth Bozman said. "The reaction of the rest of the team to the freshmen scoring was great — they just cheered them on."

Freshman attack Claire Miller led the Tigers with two goals — the first two of her Princeton career — including an unassisted score early in the second half that blew a close game open. Miller created the opportunity by taking the ball from near midfield and sprinting past a multitude of Dragon defenders to beat goalkeeper Heather Heigh, pushing the score to 3-0. The freshman also scored the second goal of the game, with 11 minutes, 10 seconds left in the first half, off an assist from sophomore attack Kristen Skorupski.

Senior attack Hilary Matson opened the scoring, taking the ball to net after Drexel had one of its few decent chances to score in the game.

Just rewards

Prior to Matson's goal, the Tigers dominated play. Princeton kept the ball consistently in the Dragons' end, but was unable to capitalize — mostly thanks to a string of incredible saves by Heigh.

"We try to improve something in every game," Bozman said. "We played with Drexel in the first half, but in the second half, even with the subs in there, we distributed the ball better and took advantage of our opportunities."

Princeton went into halftime with a 2-0 lead and came out firing to start the second frame. Senior attack Kellie Maul had a shot hit the post in the opening minutes of the half, and then Miller scored her second goal of the night.

After the teams exchanged possessions, Matson took the ball near the Dragon goal and executed a fine spin move to set up a penalty corner. The senior's pass earned her an assist as freshman defender Cory Picketts found the back of the cage. Senior defender Bridget Marchesi also picked up an assist on the score.

Princeton, with a comfortable second-half lead, then began to bring some of its starters out of the game. In the closing minutes of the contest, Matson, Miller, sophomore midfielder Ilvy Friebe, senior defender Holly O'Neill and sophomore defender Beckie Wood were all seated on the bench.

But the Tigers would not let up on the Dragons. A nifty pass from sophomore attack Rachael Becker sneaked by a Drexel defender and found freshman attack Anne-Marie McGintee open for Princeton's fifth goal.

The final score of the game was added by Maul, who netted the goal unassisted off of a corner, with just 2:15 left to play. A Dragon corner as time expired failed, preserving the shutout for sophomore goalkeeper Kelly Baril, who was rarely tested during the entire game.

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With the 6-0 decision, the Tigers matched last year's margin against Drexel. Princeton looks like it is already in midseason form going into its first Ivy League game of the season at Yale Saturday.