Box Score SCRANTON, Pa. – Sophomore Katie Redding (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) scored the game-winning goal just 24 seconds into the first overtime period and the No. 2 seed University of Scranton field hockey team (16-1) rallied to beat the No. 3 seed Susquehanna River Hawks (16-4), 2-1, in Landmark Conference semifinal action on Wednesday afternoon at Weiss Field in Scranton.
With the win, the Royals advance to a third consecutive Landmark title game where they will take on fourth seeded Catholic (7-11) who brought down top seed Moravian in overtime on Wednesday.
Redding took a feed from senior Allie Benadon (Hillsborough, N.J./Hillsborough) and was able to beat River Hawks goalie Mackenzie Bross with a shot to the far post for the game-winner.
Scranton has now set a new single-season program record for victories with their 16th win of the season, surpassing the previous record of 15 that was set in 2017.
This also marked the fourth overtime victory of the year for the Royals.
Both teams had a quality chance in the first two plus minutes of the contest as Redding was denied by Bross and Royals junior goalie Clare Maguire (Oreland, Pa./Mount Saint Joseph Academy) turned away a shot from Sam Banks. The two teams would remain deadlocked in a scoreless battle until the River Hawks were able to break through in the 26th minute as Katie Bucher found the back of the cage with a shot from the top of the circle following a penalty corner. In the final minute of the half, Bross made a save on a shot from senior Amanda Gerenza (Stroudsburg, Pa./Pocono Mountain East) to keep things at 1-0 Susquehanna heading into halftime.
The Royals knotted things at one apiece in the 37th minute as sophomore Bridget Abraldes (Holbrook, N.Y./Sachem East) deflected a shot from Redding and buried her ninth goal of the season. Following the equalizer, both goalies stood tall for the remainder of regulation as Maguire denied Ashley Schreffler with a nifty save in the 51st minute and Bross made three saves in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter to keep things tied.
Scranton began the overtime period with possession and following a couple of passes back and forth between Redding and Benadon, the former buried her conference-leading 17th goal of the season to send the Royals to Saturday's championship game.
Head coach Colleen Moyer's squad held an 11-5 shot advantage in the contest led by four from Redding.
Maguire tallied two saves on the afternoon for Scranton, while Bross registered five in the setback for the River Hawks.
Scranton picked up a 2-1 win at Catholic in the regular season meeting between the two teams on Oct. 16. A full preview of Saturday's game will be posted at athletics.scranton.edu on Friday.
--ROYALS--
