HAVERFORD, Pa. – Mary Hobbs scored twice in the final 12 minutes Wednesday night at Swan Field to help the Haverford College field hockey team complete its rally from two goals down in a wild 3-2 victory over visiting Washington College in the opening round of the league playoffs.
The Fords (11-7) advance to the second round where they will meet up with top seed and seventh-ranked Franklin & Marshall College in the first of two semifinal games Saturday in Lancaster, Pa., on the Diplomats' home turf. Wednesday night's heartbreaking loss to Haverford ends Washington's season with a 10-8 mark.
Hobbs scored her 20th and 21st goals of the year in the game's final 11:26 to complete a rally that began in the 50th minute on Roxanne Jaffe's sixth goal of the season.
Washington broke out to a 2-0 lead in less than 12 minutes of first-half game action getting goals from Gabby Tarbert and Kristen Wille. The Fords weren't able to gain their footing and alter the momentum until nearing the midway point of the opening period when they finally began stringing passes together and pressuring the Shorewomen defense.
By the time the teams entered the halftime break the Fords had forced Washington goalkeeper Stephanie Harryman to come up with four saves to preserve her team's two-goal advantage.
Jaffe's goal, with an assist from Bridget Gibbons, a third of the way through the second half lifted Haverford's spirits by pulling the home team to within one. Exactly one week ago in the regular season it was a Jaffe score in the 64th minute -- off a Hobbs assist -- that completed a comeback at Washington as the Fords downed their hosts 2-1 with a pair of unanswered second-half markers.
The late game heroics this time came from Hobbs as the junior evened the score Wednesday with a long carry dodging and swerving past Washington defenders before beating Harryman for the equalizer. The comeback was complete when Hobbs carried in from the left, crossed in front of Harryman after splitting a pair of Shorewomen and cracked the back board of the goal with a shot to the right of Harryman for the game-winner with 57 ticks on the clock.
The road doesn't get any easier for the Fords who will be going up against a nationally-ranked F&M squad which defeated visiting Haverford 5-0 earlier in the season on Oct. 9. Saturday's first semifinal is slated for a noon start in Lancaster followed by a match-up between second-seed Ursinus College and third-seed Johns Hopkins University.
Field hockey's win Wednesday was part of a stellar day for Haverford athletics as all four teams -- including men's and women's soccer, and volleyball -- competing in opening round games of the Centennial playoffs came away with wins to move on to the semifinal round.