WASHINGTON, D.C. – Jadyn Huff scored both goals, including the game-winner in the closing minutes of double overtime, as the No. 25 TCNJ field hockey team outlasted Catholic, 2-1, in a thrilling season opener in the nation's capital.
Huff's sixth career game-winner sent the Lions home happy in a hard-fought tussle with their perennial lid-lifter adversary.
TCNJ shook off a fourth-quarter equalizer from the Cardinals, who dodged multiple bullets before Huff dealt the hosts the final blow. With the specter of penalty strokes looming, rookie
Avery Gower intercepted a pass near midfield and sent the ball upfield for Huff, who sped past a defender and sent the game-winning goal through the legs of the Cardinal keeper and into the back of the cage with 3:02 to play as the TCNJ bench spilled onto the turf in celebration.
The goal left the Lions a winner in the season opener for the third year in a row.
TCNJ broke through shortly after the completion of a quiet first quarter, earning a penalty corner and then a stroke after the Catholic goalkeeper saved the initial effort by
Rachael Tetzlaff. Huff calmly stepped up to the spot and sent the ball into the back of the cage, staking the blue and gold to its first lead of the season.
Nika Eschmann forced a pair of saves with back-to-back efforts later in the frame, but both were parried away as TCNJ maintained its 1-0 lead through to the halftime break.
After a first half with little to do,
Brigitte Racey was forced into action early and often in the third quarter. The graduate goalkeeper faced five penalty corners and four on-target shots in the first 10 minutes of the frame but was equal to all of them, parrying away one Catholic effort after another to keep TCNJ on top.
Rachael Tetzlaff and her younger sister
Jillian Tetzlaff, each forced a save from the Cardinal net-minder in the final minutes of the third, but neither found its way through, and the home side finally evaded Racey's clutches around the midway point of the fourth quarter. Caroline Cristella scored off a corner to level the score at 1-all, and the Lions had to survive a last-minute Cardinal corner to force overtime.
Huff had the best chance of the first extra session, but saw both of her consecutive efforts knocked away by the keeper. The Lions upped the ante in the second overtime period, firing off four shots in a breathless flurry in which
Jillian Tetzlaff was twice denied a game-winning goal by a defensive save.
Huff ended things a few minutes later.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- TCNJ doubled up the Cardinals in shots, 14-7, and recorded all seven attempts between the teams after the end of regulation
- The Lions put all 14 of their shots on cage
- Catholic had a 9-6 edge in penalty corners, seven of them coming in the second half of regulation
STANDOUT LIONS
- Huff led all players with five shots
- Jillian Tetzlaff finished with three shots, with Eschmann and Rachael Tetzlaff adding two apiece
- Racey had four saves, all in the third quarter
NOTES
- TCNJ has faced Catholic in its season opener every year since 2017; the Lions have won eight of those nine matchups, including all five in Washington, D.C.
- Huff now has six multi-goal games for her career, two of which have come against the Cardinals; she netted a hat-trick in the 2024 season opener
- Racey reached 250 saves for her career, becoming the fourth goalkeeper in program history to reach that milestone
- Racey made her 59th career appearance in goal, tying assistant coach Wendy Trockenbrod for fifth-most all-time
- Gower was the lone newcomer in the starting lineup for the Lions, and Elena Bonfrisco made her second career start
UP NEXT
- The Lions host DeSales in their home opener on Saturday
