Cavaliers defensive effort leads field hockey past Widener University

By John Williams
October 7, 2016

In a very tightly contested matchup between Widener University and Cabrini University, it was ultimately the Lady Cavs who won the game by a score of 2-1 on a beautiful autumn night at Edith Rob Dixon Field.

The game was tied at one at the end of the first half after a goal was scored by Cabrini junior forward Sara Johnsen  just 1:42 into the action. It was matched by a Widener tally by junior Eliza Newlin. It was a very even game throughout, but despite how good Widener was, the Cavaliers stuck with their game plan.

“Well, this halftime it was interesting. I think any other game, 1-1 may have been, like, freaking out, but we were very pleased with the overall play. So 1-1 wasn’t bad,”  coach Jackie Neary said. “I think the big thing we were trying to stress was we felt whoever was gonna score the first goal in the second half was going to take over.”

The Cavaliers did just that as they dominated possession in the second half. They beat Widener in nearly every meaningful statistical category, including shots (16-4), shots on goal (7-2) and corners (15-5).

Junior Jackie Neary led the Cavaliers in shots with six in the game. She also notched two shots on goal, which was tied for the team lead with senior forward Taylor Mack. One of those two shots on goal for Mack, however, ended up standing as the game-winning goal.

“One of my main jobs is when the ball is coming from the other side it’s just to get a touch on it, and that’s exactly what I tried to do. I reached for it and luckily got a touch off of it and it went in the far post,” Mack said about her goal, which came off of a beautiful pass by junior midfielder/forward Sara Devita.

That goal, which was scored at 54:10 was Mack’s team leading 13th of the season. The real story of the game was the defensive intensity that the Cavaliers played with throughout. Widener’s total of four shots was astonishingly low, even for a team who hasn’t had much success against the Cavaliers in the past.

Cavaliers’ senior Kylie McDevitt and juniors Ryan Taylor and Jess Tennett were very aggressive on defense, which didn’t allow Widener much room to maneuver with the ball on their sticks. Coach Neary credited this to the teams practice on Tuesday night.

“Yesterday we reviewed a lot of things in practice that we wanted to happen tonight, and I think what is really happening right now is that the entire team is contributing to the win, not that everybody is getting into the actual game, but our practice yesterday was so competitive with the internal group that it showed up today, so I was really crediting a lot of the bench players with the win today, because it all started yesterday in practice,”  Coach Neary said.

As for Mack, who irritated her ankle injury that has been bothering her all season, coach Neary was adamant that she would be in the lineup when the Cavaliers face off against Keystone College, in what is a CSAC rivalry game this Saturday at noon at Edith Rob Dixon Field.

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John Williams

John is a Sophomore Digitial Communications and Social Media Major at Cabrini College. He is an aspiring sports writer, who also is an editor for BlueLineStation.com. You can catch John's radio show "The Whole 10 Yards" on Fridays from 12-2 on Cavalier Radio, 89.1 WYBF-FM, or online at WYBF.com

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