Women’s Hockey struggles against Amherst College

MEGHAN O’REILLY ’19

STAFF WRITER

On Dec. 5, the Trinity Women’s Hockey team fell to Amherst College 3-6, putting the Bantams overall record at 1-4 (0-4 in NESCAC). Amherst remains undefeated. Trinity began the game with a promising start, keeping their opponents on defense for the first two minutes but Amherst responded with a goal at 4:47 in the first, following an intense scuffle in front of the Bantam’s net. For the rest of the period, Trinity and Amherst were evenly matched, Trinity played good offense, but Amherst did well limiting shots on goal. The closest Trinity came to scoring in the first was as the clock was winding down and Emma Tani ’16 ricocheted a shot of the Amherst pipe, sending a sigh of frustration through the Trinity crowd. The first period ended with matching penalties that carried over into the second.

Amherst once again got off to a quick start by scoring just 28 seconds into the second period, giving them a 2-0 lead. Amherst goalie Sabrina Dobbins blocked many of the shots Trinity managed to get off until the 5:33 mark when a well-aimed puck from Kelcie Finn ’18 found the back of the net, putting the Bantams on the board. Sydney Belinskas ’18 had several big saves until the very end of the period when Amherst scored again with 27 seconds left in the period making it 3-1.

After a lengthy battle around the Trinity goal, Amherst made the score 4-1 at 7:10 in the third period. However, Trinity responded just 23 seconds later with a rebound goal from Shannon Farrell ’16. Close shots from Finn and Tani again caused half the crowd to groan in disappointment and the other in relief. Amherst scored again quickly after that on an empty net goal at 12:40. Back at regular strength and now on a power play, Hannah Oganeku ’18 put the final goal on the board for Trinity 18 seconds later making the score 5-3. The Bantams had many scoring opportunities they were not able to capitalize on. When their goalie was pulled again, Amherst pounced and scored their final goal at 18:31. The game ended with a score of 6-3.

The women have had a slow start to the season thus far, but will look to learn from their shortcomings when they play again on Dec. 12 at home against Southern Maine.