The ball was tossed around the perimeter of the offensive zone between New Hampshire sticks, possession after possession, for minutes at a time. The Wildcats purposely used a very inactive offense as they sought to slow the game’s pace to a grinding halt.
The tactic worked for a while, as the team trailed No. 8 Stony Brook just 5-3 with 20 minutes left in the contest, but it did not last.
Over a 12-minute span in the second half, the Seawolves went on a 6-0 run to break the score open, winning 11-4 to extend their winning streak to eight games on Saturday afternoon.
“They stalled,” Stony Brook head coach Joe Spallina said. “A game like today is the reason why the rules are changed and they will be changed. Unfortunately, it’s become a theme in our conference.”
The halftime score was 4-2, with Stony Brook on top, but the New Hampshire strategy was clear — play passively and methodically against an opponent versus whom it was out-matched.
“It’s aggravating,” Spallina said. “But we showed good composure. We didn’t get rattled. … We held them to four goals, with our goalie making some good saves. They were kind of lulling us to sleep, trying to get us to stretch, and then, voom, get a quick goal.”
With 18:27 left in the second half, junior attacker Courtney Murphy scored on an individual effort, beating her defender with a dodging move before netting one of her four goals in the game. The tally was the first of a second-half Seawolves run that put the game out of reach.
“It was just a matter of time,” Spallina said. “If there was ever a chance under God for an upset, it was that game. [New Hampshire] was winning some draws, they were controlling the ball, they were getting a lot of the bounces. … In some ways it was a perfect storm. This game could not have broken better for UNH, and they still lost by seven.”
New Hampshire led 10-7 in draw controls, an area where Stony Brook was outnumbering opponents by an average of 11 draw controls per game in conference play, which allowed the Wildcats to better dictate the tempo.
“This game we were struggling a bit on draw controls, and that was enabling them to kind of stall on us,” Murphy said. “By scrapping for those 50-50 balls and pushing for fast breaks, we eventually started getting up by a couple, then they can’t stall because they have to come back.”
Sophomore attacker Kylie Ohlmiller had three goals and two assists for Stony Brook, while Murphy’s four-goal output gave her a nation-leading 62 goals this season.
“She’s amazing,” junior midfielder Kristin Yevoli said. “She’s just a finisher. I don’t know how she does what she does. I feel like she’s unstoppable. It’s just — we’re so lucky to have her.”
