Tricia Light's Hat Trick Leads Unbeaten Field Hockey to 6-1 Win at Rutgers

Friday, September 5

Piscataway, N.J.

3 p.m.

Temple University

(3-0)

Rutgers

(2-1)

Temple

Rutgers

Tricia Light scored her first career hat trick to lead Temple to a 6-1 win at Rutgers

Photo by: Ken Light

Tricia Light's Hat Trick Leads Unbeaten Field Hockey to 6-1 Win at Rutgers

9.5.14 | Field Hockey

Box Score

Box Score (PDF) l Go Pro Video of Rachel Mueller's Goal l Photo Gallery

PISCATAWAY, N.J. - With three goals in the first 12 minutes, Temple field hockey set the tone early and never looked back, ultimately earning a 6-1 win at Rutgers (2-1) on Friday afternoon and handing the Scarlet Knights their first loss. Junior Tricia Light recorded her first career hat trick in helping the Owls remain undefeated and improve to 3-0 overall.

"The team did a great job to set the tone and start strong," said Temple head coach Amanda Janney. "Tricia stole the ball in the first five seconds of the game to help the team create the first goal."

It was a challenging game for Temple's goalkeepers despite the score, as Rutgers outshot the Owls 19-16 for the game and 12-4 in the second half. Senior Lizzy Millen made five saves in nearly 51 minutes of action, while junior Haley Mitchell came in for the last 19 minutes and made four saves while not allowing a single goal.

"Lizzy and Haley both got a lot of action and they were aggressive," said Janney. "Lizzy set the tone with her strong play and two impressive aerial saves, and Haley finished the game with two great saves on a wide open forward and a nice save against Rutgers' good corner shooter."

Only one minute and 16 seconds had elapsed in the game when the Owls got on the scoreboard for the first time. Light put her first one in the cage off an assist from Paige Gross, which was her fourth already of the season.

In the ninth minute the Owls went up 2-0 on Alyssa Delp's first goal of the season. After a previous shot by Sarah Deck was blocked, Delp collected the ball and put it in the cage. Less than four minutes later, Light scored her second goal of the game to give Temple a 3-0 lead.

The Scarlet Knights began to find their own offense near the midway point of the first half, forcing Millen to make a string of four saves in a one-minute span. Rutgers finally got one past her in the 15th minute when Nicole Imbriaco scored off an assist from Alicia Stever.

Nicole Kroener scored the Owls' fourth goal of the half on a corner play in the 24th minute, and the 4-1 lead stood through halftime.

Light completed her hat trick just six minutes into the second half, getting an assist from Delp on the goal. With just over 15 minutes remaining in the game, freshman Rachael Mueller got her second goal of the season on a back door shot thanks to an assist from sophomore Katie Foran.

"It was a great team win with so many different players contributing to our success," said Janney. "We're happy for Rachael to score a big-time goal. She got a break-away and hit a hard shot from the top of the circle."

Temple will face a tough test in its next game, traveling to #4 Duke on Sunday, Sept. 7 for a game set to begin at noon.