LEWISTON, Maine – Junior Katrina Winfield (Wilmington, Del.) scored the winning goal on a deflection in overtime to lead the visiting Trinity College Bantams to a nail-biting 3-2 victory against the Bates College Bobcats in New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) field hockey action on Campus Avenue Field this afternoon. Trinity, ranked No. 5 in the nation, improves to 9-0 overall and 5-0 in the NESCAC entering a pivotal contest at No. 3-ranked Tufts tomorrow at noon. The No. 13-ranked Bobcats drop to 5-4 overall and 2-3 in the league.
In the 63rd minute, Trinity senior tri-captain Elle Fair (Westport, Conn.) weaved through traffic into the middle of the circle. She got off a slow rolling shot, but Winfield redirected the ball enough to sneak into the goal for the game-winning. Trinity's Caelin Flaherty (Upton, Mass.) had sniped a goal early in the second quarter, unassisted for the game's first points. She received the ball on the right side of the circle and danced around a defender before firing a shot on the run from straight-on into the lower left corner of the cage. With less than a minute left in the second quarter, Fair scored her second goal of the season off a penalty stroke, beating Bates goalie Grace Biddle top shelf.
The Bobcats converted a goal by Paige Cote off a penalty corner at the beginning of the third quarter, bringing the score to 2-1. Late in the third quarter, the Bobcats knocked in another goal off a penalty corner, heating up the intensity, and Molly Harmon tied the game up, 2-2. Bates outshot Trinity, 14-11, and had double the penalty corners with 12 to just six for the Bantams. Biddle made five saves and Trinity junior goalkeeper Olivia McMichael (Glenside, Pa.) had six.
