Hamilton College scored the first three goals of the second half and the Continentals held on for a 10-9 NESCAC win against the nationally ranked No. 5 Colby College Mules at Colby's Bill Alfond Field on Saturday afternoon.
Box Score
Hamilton (3-0, 2-0 NESCAC) defeated a top five team for the first time since March 16, 2011, when the Continentals posted a 13-9 victory against No. 5 Gettysburg College in their season opener in Florida. Hamilton trailed the Mules 5-2 midway through the first half but allowed just four goals in the last 42 minutes.
Ashleigh Stephan '15, Nora Klemmer '17 and Morgan Fletcher '17 led the Hamilton offense with three goals each. Stephan's three tallies tied her career high and the total was a career best for Klemmer and Fletcher. Darby Philbrick '18 added one goal and one assist. Margaret Gabriel '16 was credited with one assist, three draw controls and two caused turnovers.
Hannah Withiam '16 tied a career high with four ground balls and caused two turnovers for the Continentals. Hannah Rubin '17 made four saves and is 3-0 in goal.
Abby Hatch paced Colby (1-1, 1-1) with three goals, one assist, three ground balls, four draw controls and three caused turnovers. Lexie Perticone scored three goals and Dana Swaffield contributed one goal and two assists. Abby Hooper notched one goal and picked up one assist, and Sara Miller scored a goal. Emilie Klein picked up three ground balls, Jackie Brokaw caused three turnovers and Claire Dickson made seven saves.
Hamilton converted two of its three free-position shot attempts while the Mules scored on just 1 of 5 free-position shots. The Continentals held a slim 19-18 edge in shots.
After battling to a 6-6 halftime tie, Hamilton scored three times early in the second half and led the rest of the way. Philbrick scored unassisted and gave the Continentals their first lead of the afternoon 49 seconds into the second half. Stephan followed with an unassisted goal with 26:31 left and Klemmer ripped a free-position goal with 22:45 to play.
The Mules, who fought back from a 10-7 deficit to defeat Trinity College last Saturday, cut the Hamilton lead to a goal with 10:54 remaining. Perticone scored on a pass from Swaffield for her third goal of the day with 17:33 to go. Swaffield found Hooper for another score and it was 9-8.
Hamilton spent the final 10 minutes trying to kill time with mixed results. The Continentals committed a pair of turnovers but Colby failed to capitalize on its chances. Hamilton did get one goal off the spread as Stephan scored in front off a nice feed from Philbrick with 6:15 remaining. The Mules cut it to 10-9 with 4:13 to go when Miller scored from Hooper.
Colby won the draw control but immediately turned the ball over. Gabriel created the turnover and picked up the loose ball. Hamilton did a fine job of spreading out and killing the final four minutes.
The Continentals host No. 12 Bowdoin College for another conference contest on Saturday, March 14, at noon.
