ST. CHARLES, Mo.—The road has not been kind to the Bellarmine field hockey team of late, and Saturday night provided another tough trip as the Knights fell 6-0 at Lindenwood.
The host Lions got of the gates early as they celebrated senior night with a quick goal to take a 1-0 lead less than two minutes into the game. Lindenwood added another score in the ninth minute to go up 2-0.
Meanwhile, the Knights were not getting too many opportunities. However, as the clock wound down toward halftime, Bellarmine got off two shots that forced Lindenwood goalie Skylar Starbeck to come up with saves. The senior came through for the home team and the Lions went into the break with a 2-0 lead.
Lindenwood again struck early when play resumed, scoring less than five minutes into the second half to extend its lead to three.
The game was interrupted by lightning, forcing a 33 minute unscheduled stoppage of play. On the restart, the Knights had a flurry of activity, but three shots came up empty.
Bellarmine got off just two more shots the rest of the game. On one of those shots,
Lindsay Reynolds managed the get the ball past Starbeck, but Lindenwood's Savannah Motley stepped to record the defensive save.
The final 10 and a half minutes pretty much belonged to Lindenwood as the Lions tacked on three more goals to make the final margin six.
Final statistics show a 28-11 shot advantage for the Lions, including a 14-6 edge in shots on target. Bellarmine managed to draw five penalty corners, but Lindenwood drew seven and scored on two of those opportunities.
"It's hard to win without scoring," lamented Bellarmine Head Coach
Mark Blankenbaker. "Back to back shutouts is very surprising for us," he said adding that the Knights are simply not getting off shots or not getting them on the cage.
In tonight's contest, Blankenbaker said falling behind early was a big factor. "Giving up a goal in under two minutes put a lot of pressure on us, and we didn't recover," he said. "Give Lindenwood credit. They came out on their senior night and played better than we did."
The loss drops Bellarmine to 5-5 on the season while Lindenwood improves to 8-2.
The Knights have two more road games coming up next week as they will play at St. Thomas Aquinas on Saturday and at Mercy College the following day. Bellarmine finally returns to Owsley B. Frazier Stadium on Oct. 20 when they host Belmont Abbey.
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