It was raining green cards in D.C. Sunday, as the leaves changed colors and the American University Eagles (6-3) beat the Bucknell Bison (3-2).
American started with the ball, but like many previous matchups with Bucknell, the game quickly turned into a midfield battle. With 8:10 left to go in the first quarter, Bucknell had an offensive corner that was kept without a goal due to stellar defense by senior Maura Phelan. After this corner, AU turned the game around and wouldn’t let Bucknell close to their circle until the end of the third quarter.
On a penalty corner, with just 12:19 left to go in the second quarter, graduate student Gaby de Kock sent the ball flying into the back of the goal, putting the Eagles up 1-0. On AU’s second corner of the quarter, with 7:50 left to go, senior Josie Formica sent a shot into the back of the goal. AU was up 2-0, and all seemed well.
That’s when the green cards began.
With just 1:44 to go in the second quarter, the first green card was called on senior Aidan Rossman.
The third quarter began with another green card on Rossman, and a midfield battle, with both teams coming close to scoring throughout the quarter. Both teams heavily utilized the sideline, and graduate student Noor Coenen showed off her air-dribbling skills on an impressive run halfway through the quarter. After a few more minutes of offense, sophomore Imogen Hatton sent a shot into the back of the net with 3:43 left in the quarter, putting the Eagles up 3-0. However, Bucknell wasn’t done — after Rossman’s third green card, the Bison scored with 16 seconds left in the third quarter.
Bucknell scored again with more than 40 seconds left in the game, but AU held on for the win.
“We executed corners really well in the beginning of the game to go up by two. That was very important,” head coach Steve Jennings said. “We did a good job of being able to hold a lot of possession of the ball for most of the field, and our defense was really outstanding with intercepts and tackling.”
