By TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
OWEGO — It was a battle from start to finish, but Owego prevailed over Marathon, 3-2, in double overtime in Section IV field hockey action here Tuesday evening.
Eva Crawford took the ball past several defenders for the game-winning goal with 4:32 remaining in the second extra period.
“I thought we dominated the game from start to finish,” coach Ashlee Marsh said. “We had a little hiccup there in the middle when they scored a couple of goals, but I would say we controlled possession most of the night, not only in overtime, but regular time also.”
The River Hawks struggled to take advantage of early opportunities and found themselves trailing, 1-0 at intermission.
“That seems to be one of our things this year is we get these great looks and stuff, but we just have to finish them,” Marsh said.
With just eight seconds to go in the second quarter, Delaney Reilly scored to break a scoreless deadlock and give the Olympians the edge.
That advantage wouldn’t last long once the second half got going as Owego got on the scoreboard when Gabby Boehme knotted the score at 12:21 with an assist going to Aubrey Schmidt.
The battle between the two teams would continue for another 11 minutes and that’s when Mikayla Wilbur gave the River Hawks their first lead with 1:17 to play in the period. Schmidt would pick up her second assist of the contest.
Marathon wasn’t going to go away easily and fought back to tie the game when Izabella Conklin fed Jamison Conklin with 13:04 left on the fourth quarter clock.
Both teams drew penalty corners late in the first overtime with The Olympians getting theirs with just over three minutes left and Owego getting an opportunity just after the clock ticked down below two minutes.
With the overtime periods being 7-v-7, both teams were showing some fatigue, but the River Hawks seemed to have a little more gas in the tank, especially Crawford, who darted between two defenders, the past a couple more before taking the game-winning shot.
Owego took 19 shots to seven for Marathon and held a 13-5 advantage in penalty corners.
Lillie Kneller made five saves in goal for the home team and Mattie Potter stopped 15 for the Olympians.
Owego heads to Windsor on Wednesday.
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IN PHOTO 1: Gianna Yaichuk. IN TOP PHOTO: Eva Crawford on her way to scoring the game-winning goal. … PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
