Johnson Scores Her 3rd Goal with no Time Remaining For 4-3 Win
Johnson Wins it as Time Expires with Third Goal of Night
Smithfield, R.I. - Freshman Caitlan Johnson (Walpole, Mass.) scored her third goal of the game with no time remaining to break a 3-3 tie and give the Bryant Field Hockey team the walk-off 4-3 victory over Southern Connecticut State Wednesday afternoon.
With the clock reading 0:00, the Bulldogs had one last chance to avoid overtime on a corner. Laynie Sadler (Rehoboth, Mass.) passed it in to Johnson who buried it with a rocket of a shot past Owls goaltender Casey Sanford.
In a game the Bulldogs had to win to stabilize their playoff position, they started off very poorly surrendering two goals in the first 6:14 and quickly found themselves trailing by two.
Johnson cut that lead in half in the 31st minute, firing another blistering shot into the net off a corner pass from Sadler.
The Sadler-Johnson combo tied the game as well, as the freshman sniper scored exactly the same way seven minutes later to tie it at two.
Bryant got its first lead just five minutes later when Courtney O'Brien (Tewksbury, Mass.) set up Sadler for the go-ahead goal. It was Sadler's team-leading 12th of the season.
The Owls never gave up though and tied it with under nine minutes to play, as Jennifer Sousa found the ball in a scramble in front of Kundayi Mawema (Hare, Zimbabwe) and put it home for the tying goal.
But the Sadler-Johnson connection hooked up once more with no time remaining, and the Owls' chance for an upset was ruined.
It was Johnson's first collegiate hat trick, and she now is second on the team with eight goals. Sadler finished with five points in the game (goal, three assists).
With the win, the Bulldogs distanced themselves from seventh-place Assumption and have their eyes set on catching fourth-place St. Michael's and fifth-place UMass-Lowell.
Bryant (10-7, 8-5 NE-10) will host first-place Stonehill Tuesday at 7 p.m. in its regular-season finale.