F. Hockey Rallies Past B.C., 2-1

The pouring rain could not ground the Harvard field hockey team yesterday as it came from behind to beat Boston College, 2-1.

The Crimson (9-4, 3-1 Ivy), making a case to be the top team in Massachusetts, dominated the Eagles (7-8, 1-2 Big East) after giving up an early goal.

Harvard tied the game before halftime and came storming out in the second half.

Opening the second 35 minutes of play with three penalty corners in the first five minutes, Harvard finally capitalized and broke the 1-1 tie on its fourth penalty corner opportunity in the next minute.

Sliding down the right side of the goal while junior midfielder Maisa Badawy spotted the inbound pass, senior sweeper Katie Schoolwerth took a perfect feed from junior midfielder Liz Sarles.

With Eagle defenders expecting a shot from the top of the circle, Schoolwerth found an opening to go one-on-one with goalkeeper Jill Dedman and buried a well-placed shot into the far corner.

"The play's called 'hash-marks,' " Schoolwerth said. "I just go to a certain point on the field and wait for Liz to pass. The scouting report on B.C. revealed that their defense went to the left a lot on corners, so we were definitely planning to try to capitalize on the right-hand side. We were just waiting for our chance."

In the second half alone, the Crimson offense registered eight shots, all but one of them on goal, and drew nine penalty corners.

After Schoolwerth's goal made it 2-1, the Harvard offense never looked back. Boston College made just one last offensive charge in the remainder of the game.

Splitting the Harvard defense, senior forward Kellie Misiaszek, B.C.'s leading scorer, broke into the scoring circle and fired a bullet towards Harvard senior keeper Anya Cowan.

In routine fashion, Cowan made another one of her remarkable game-saving stops to stone Misiaszek cold.

Fighting for the rebound, however, the Eagles drew a penalty corner off an overly aggressive Harvard defense, and B.C. was given one last lease on life.

Stopping a perfect centering pass from the corner and teeing off a bullet earmarked for the lower right-hand corner, the B.C. penalty corner unit executed a near-flawless offensive display.

But, the Eagles' final drive deflected high off a Harvard defender and out of harm's way.

And that would be all for the Eagles as the Harvard defense didn't yield another offensive charge in the remaining 23 minutes.

"There's been a couple of times this season where we've played inconsistently, especially in the second half," Schoolwerth said. "And it was really important for us to come out strong and play well late in the game."

It was even more important for the Crimson to come on strong after B.C. opened the scoring three minutes into the game on a goal by freshman forward Christy Zider.

Harvard tri-captain Dominique Kalil evened the game midway through the period with a tip-in off a shot by freshman midfielder Kalen Ingram.

The key to Harvard's resurgent offense was the play of Kalil and junior forward Kate Nagle.

Kalil, who leads the team in scoring with seven goals and seven assists for 21 points, and Nagle, who also has seven goals on the season, were kept off the score-sheet Saturday in Harvard's 2-0 loss to No.13 Boston University.

Yesterday, however, Kalil and Nagle seemed to rediscover their energizer batteries.

In the final ten minutes of the game, while the Harvard defense was nursing a slim one-goal lead, Kalil and Nagle alone sustained the Harvard offense, allowing the rest of Harvard's attackers to control the midfield and prevent a B.C. breakout.

Kalil notched her seventh goal of the season to knot the game at 1-1 in the first half, while both Kalil and Nagle each had a pair of shots on the afternoon. Kalil's goal moved her into fifth in the Ivy League in scoring.

Although not factoring in the scoring, sophomore back Hilary Walton was a standout on defense.

Stopping numerous Eagle drives before they could even start and quarterbacking Harvard's speedy transition game, Walton was pivotal in starting several Crimson rushes and virtually shutting down the Eagle offense in the second half.

Harvard will need Walton and the rest of the Harvard defense to be just as strong as they host Princeton this Saturday in a key Ivy League match up.

Harvard and Princeton are in a three-way tie with Cornell for second in the Ivy League, and a loss to Princeton this weekend would all but kill Harvard's title hopes.

Harvard, Princeton and Cornell are all chasing Ivy leader Brown, who remains undefeated atop the standings.

"It definitely helps to have a win going into the Princeton game," Schoolwerth said. "After the lost to BU on the weekend, we really needed a positive and today was a great game."