HAVERFORD, Pa. – Haverford College's upset bid fell a goal short Thursday evening as the #12 Fords dropped a 2-1 non-conference decision to the No. 4 Falcons from visiting Messiah College in top-20 Division III field hockey action at Swan Field.
Mary Hobbs put Haverford (5-1) on the scoreboard in the 54th minute, halving a 2-0 lead that Messiah (5-1) had built in the early going of first-half action.
Haverford came out of the halftime break trailing by two goals after getting out shot by a 14-3 margin, but it looked like a different team getting off the second-half'sinitial five shots. Messiah held off the resurgent Fords then generated four consecutive shots of its own which were all stopped by goalie Sydney Hyder, preventing the Falcons from building on their lead.
Game play pushed back into the Fords' offensive end following Messiah's pressure and from there, Haverford was able to generate a penalty corner chance at the 53:41 mark. Bridget Gibbons inserted the ball to Hobbs who stopped it, allowed a fake shot from Jen DiMaria then slid with the ball two steps to her right and rocketed a shot from just inside the arc. It found its way through the defense and past Messiah goalie Molly Gebrosky for Hobbs' fourth goal of the year.
The Fords generated three more penalty corner opportunities and four more shots over the final 16 minutes but weren't able to find the equalizer.
Messiah got off to a quick start to put the host Fords in a good-sized hole. The Falcons scored at 3:34 of the first half on the initial shot of the game, then doubled their lead with a goal in the 10th minute. In addition to their advantage in shots, they also created 10 penalty corner chances to just two by the Fords.
Second-half action was either even, or to the Fords' advantage as they out shot the visitors by a 10-8 margin and registered eight penalty corners to only five by Messiah.
Hyder finished the game with a career-high 16 saves, increasing her season save percentage to .868, also a career-best for the senior. Messiah's Gebrosky earned the win picking up five saves between the pipes for the visitors.
The loss ends a five-game win streak which opened the season for the Fords who step away from Swan Field for their next game, at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey on Saturday afternoon, for the middle outing of a three-game non-conference stretch.