LOUISVILLE, Ky.—After a full week between games, the Bellarmine field hockey team showed they were well-rested with a commanding 5-1 victory over the visiting Concordia Falcons on Sunday at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium.
 
The Knights jumped out to a quick, 2-0 start, and the Falcons never seriously challenged the lead as Bellarmine held a 21-6 advantage in shots and a 13-5 edge in penalty corners.
 
"We came out focused and ready to play," said Bellarmine Coach Mark Blankenbaker. "We got on the board early but lost our concentration for the rest of the first half."
 
After goals by Merit Harris and Lindsay Reynolds gave the Knights an early lead, Bellarmine surrendered a goal to Megan McPike late in the first period as Concordia converted one of its three penalty corners of the half.
 
"We reorganized in the second half," Blankenbaker said. "We had some really nice goals and missed several opportunities in our offensive end."
 
The first Bellarmine goal of the second period came when Jillian Fazio found some open field and dribbled into the right side of the circle and smashed a shot into the left side of the goal.
 
The Knights extended the lead to 4-1 when Harris delivered a hard shot that caromed off the goalie pads and Mandi Isom collected the rebound and delivered an on-target shot.
 
The final score of the game came on a nice play by freshman Cassidy Sweeney.  The Louisville native dribbled into the right side of the circle and when the Concordia goalie came out of the cage to challenge her, Sweeney delivered a near-perfect pass to Reynolds who had positioned herself just in front of the left post. Reynolds easily converted the shot from point-blank range.
 
Blankenbaker said the Knights "got a little frantic and lost their composure a few times," as evidenced by two yellow cards and two green cards whistled on Bellarmine. In the adversity, however, the Knights were able to be productive and scored one of its five goals while being short-handed. "We did a really nice job while being down in numbers of controlling the ball around midfield," Blankenbaker said.
 
Despite the convincing win, Blankenbaker said he sees room for improvement. "On the defensive end we were disorganized. We lost marks in the circle, and we just didn't play well fundamentally. We'll hit the practice field on Tuesday and work on getting better for next weekend."

The Knights, who improved to 4-1 on the season, return to action on Friday when they host Mercy at 3:55 p.m. in Frazier Stadium.
 
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