The Lafayette field hockey team made a comeback from their previous losses with a 4-1 victory over Holy Cross on Sept. 25, registering their first win of the Patriot League season. With this win, the Leopards improved to a 6-2 record and 1-1 in the Patriot League having narrowly lost their opening match to American away 0-1.

The Leopards hit the Crusaders with a balanced attack, scoring one goal in all four periods of the game. Freshman midfielder Filine Gerbrandij got the Maroon and White on the board early, less than two minutes into the match and the Leopards never looked back. The goal marked the first of Gerbrandij’s season and career as a Leopard.

“Holy Cross is a dangerous team especially when given space and opportunity,” senior forward Molly McAndrew said. “We knew coming into the game that we had to be at our best and finish our opportunities in order to come away with a positive result.”

McAndrew is the Leopards leading scorer with five goals and is second on the team in points with a total of 13.

The Leopards kept the pedal to the metal, scoring early in the second half to make it 2-0. Lafayette’s goal came off the stick of senior forward Alix Talkow and marked her first of the season.

The Leopards tallied a whooping 36 shots with 19 of them being on goal compared to Holy Cross’s five shots and three on goal. The Leopards also had eight corners compared to Holy Cross’s two.

“We played a solid game and were able to capitalize in important moments which led us to our first league win,” McAndrew said. “I am happy with the result we came away with but we realize there is still room to improve…we have a lot of season still left to play and more patriot league opponents to play as well.”

The Leopards continued to ride the momentum after the half, with sophomore midfielder Alden Boccella scoring a goal a minute into the third quarter. The goal was Boccella’s first of the season and put the Leopards up 3-0.

In the fourth period, Lafayette scored again off the stick of junior defender Simone Hefting who won Patriot League Player of the Week earlier this season. The goal marked Hefting’s first of the season and was assisted by senior midfielder Audrey Sawers and McAndrew. Sawers leads the Leopards in points with 14 and is second in goals with four.

“We created a lot of scoring opportunities tonight with a cohesive and threatening offensive unit,” head coach Jennifer Stone said in her post-game interview with goleopards.com. “As this was our first Patriot League win, we will use it to keep moving forward this week in practice, as well as looking ahead to other conference opponents.”

Sitting at 1-1 in the Patriot League, the Leopards have already shifted their focus to the upcoming match against Colgate.

“The team is preparing for Colgate like any other week,” McAndrew said. “We know it is an important game for us, and we are continuing to train hard every day to get better. The mindset remains the same in that we are focused on one game at a time and getting a result which stems from hard work and preparation at practice all week long.”

The Leopards will face off against Colgate at Metzgar Field tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. for their third game of the Patriot League season.