WILMINGTON — Eighth-grader Maura Read had a goal and an assist to lead Ursuline past Saint Mark’s, 3-1, in field hockey on Oct. 26.
The game was played in a mist at Serviam Field, but the damp conditions did not slow the action. The Raiders and Spartans went up and down the field all day for an entertaining 60 minutes.
In fact, the first shot of the afternoon came just 35 seconds into the first quarter, as Juliana Copeman worked a give and go with Chloe Dandurand, but her backhanded shot was stopped by Spartans keeper Abigail McIlvain. The next big opportunity for the Raiders came late in the quarter, and this time they didn’t miss. On a restart deep to the right of McIlvain, Sophia Shroyer found Read, who slid one low into the cage.
The Spartans had the first chance of the second, earning a penalty corner seven minutes in, but Samantha Hurd made a pad save for Ursuline. A subsequent corner did not result in a shot.
The ball sat in Ursuline’s defensive end of the field as time counted down toward the half, but the Raiders made the most of the chance. Copeman whacked a long pass up the middle of the field, and Maggie Lober caught up to it near the top of the scoring circle. She deposited the ball with 9.4 left to go.
Ursuline had two early penalty corners in the third, but McIlvain came up with a save on the first, and the second resulted in an errant pass. The Spartans tested Raiders keeper Stephanie Kulenguskey with their own penalty corner halfway through the third, but she made the save. The Spartans kept the pressure on, and with 5:49 to go in the third, Ellie Cummings got her team on the board after poking the ball beyond a drawn-out Kulenguskey and sending it home.
Mary Alexander added an insurance goal for the Raiders after taking a pass from Read on a penalty corner with 11:28 left in the game.
Ursuline finished with a 9-7 shot advantage, while the Spartans had five penalty corners to the Raiders’ four. Hurd and Kulenguskey each had three saves for Ursuline (2-2), which is home again on Wednesday against Newark Charter at 3:45 p.m.
McIlvain had six saves for Saint Mark’s, which lost for the first time after three wins. The Spartans will take on Padua next Monday at home at 3:45 p.m.
All photos by Mike Lang.
