Forbes Road 4 Mercersburg Academy 1

Mercersburg, Pa. – The Forbes Road field hockey team (10-2) defeated the Mercersburg Academy Blue Storm in a Thursday afternoon match up on the Storm’s home turf.  Although the Blue Storm’s Izzy Jones would score at the 17 minute mark, on a hard hit penalty corner ball, a fierce Cardinal team came back from the deficit before the end of the half. Senior Hailey Dodson got Forbes on the board on a penalty corner ball sent to her by Payton Kendall. Shortly thereafter the half would expire in a 1-1 tie.

A hard charging Cardinal attack hammered away at goal during the early minutes of the second period, when they were awarded a series of penalty corners. Senior Shelby Harnish gathered up a deflected ball from a defender’s stick and sent a bullet of a shot zooming past the goalie and into the left corner of the goal 5 minutes into play.  Mercersburg’s hard hit balls helped them make progress towards goal, but were quickly scooped up by a strong Cardinal defense that repeatedly fed the ball back up through to the awaiting attack. Forbes earned another series of penalty corners late in the match to shut the door firmly with their two final goals. Kaelonni Lashinsky’s centered ball into the circle caused a squirmish that resulted with R. Hastings, the Blue Storm goalie, on the ground. Forward Harlie Strait took advantage of the situation and nudged the ball over the goal line. The final tally on the scoreboard for the Cardinals came with just 19 seconds remaining. A perfectly executed penalty corner ball went from the stick of Dodson to Harnish to Emma Gelvin set up on right post. Gelvin’s slight reverse  tap into the cage wrapped up the win for Forbes.

Game Statistics

Shots On Goal: FR 20, MA 2

Penalty Corners: FR 15, MA 3

Goalkeeper Saves: FR 1 (Waite), MA 16

The Cardinals travel to Fairfield Friday afternoon for a 4:15 game and then to Fox Chapel on Saturday for a 1 pm match up.