Score: St. John Fisher College 4, Elmira College 0
Records: Fisher (11-1, 5-0 E8), Elmira (1-10, 0-4 E8)
Location: Murray Athletic Center – Pine Valley, N.Y.
 
PINE VALLEY, N.Y. -- A second-half surge by St. John Fisher College lifted the Cardinals past the Elmira College field hockey team by a 4-0 final score in Empire 8 Conference action at the Murray Athletic Center on Saturday afternoon.

The Soaring Eagles started the first half of play strong, as they finished the first 35 minutes tied with Fisher in shots at 9-all. This evenness in shots did not last the entire game, however, as the Cardinals finished the contest with a 26-to-10 advantage in the category after a strong second half.  

EC had a chance to take the first lead of the game at the 8:07 mark of the first half. On a penalty corner, Katie Carroll '18 sent the ball straight to Janie Kempf '21, who turned and fired a shot that the Cardinals' starting goalie, Ashley Maynard, was able to get in front of. On the rebound, Atu Machika '18 turned and fired a shot that Maynard was barely able to kick away. 
 
Elmira's starting netminder Julie Hockenberger '18 also started the contest off strong, as she was able to make five first-half saves. Unfortunately for the Soaring Eagles, one of those saves would lead to the first goal of the game. Fisher's Kelly Bergamo was able to corral a saved Lauren Fazio strike in the 16th minute and bury a goal past Hockenberger into the bottom left-hand corner of the cage, which put the road team up 1-0.

The Purple and Gold would get a few more chances before the end of the half, the closest being an Alison Mariano '18 strike in the 24th minute that Maynard was able to get a leg on, which preserved EC's 1-0 deficit heading into the halftime break.

The defending Empire 8 Champions turned up their intensity in the second half, as Fisher scored two goals in the first six minutes of play to stretch its lead to 3-0 with just under 30 minutes remaining. The Cardinals generated four shots in that time period, while Elmira was unable to post any.  

Fisher added one more goal in the 54th minute to take a 4-0 advantage, a lead that it would not relinquish for the remainder of the game.

In the second half, the Cardinals' constant pressure stopped the Soaring Eagles from getting their offense going. In the final 35 minutes, EC recorded just one shot, while Fisher tallied 17. In the end, the Cardinals' offensive perseverance proved to be too much, as Elmira was resigned to take the 4-0 conference setback.
 
News and Notes

• Elmira falls to 1-10 on the season and 0-4 in league play.
• Fisher improves to 6-1 all-time against EC.
• Hockenberger's seven saves are the third-most that she has recorded this year.
• For her career, Hockenberger now has 412 saves, just three behind Ann Phillips '07 (415) for the fourth-most in program history.
• Tina O'Donnell '20 posted six saves in her 29:10 minutes of action today, which increases her team lead in the category to 64 on the year.
• With two more shots on goal today, Kempf increased her team lead in the category to 38 in her rookie campaign.   

Up Next
Elmira's continues its season-long four-game homestand with a non-conference bout against Wells College on Tuesday, October 10. The bout is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. at the Murray Athletic Center.