Guillermina Causarano's hat trick powers No. 11 Rutgers field hockey past Miami
"Miami of Ohio is a great team. We're really excited to play them," said the Rutgers field hockey team's head coach, Meredith Civico, after falling 1-0 to Saint Joseph's on Wednesday.
The excitement for the matchup against Miami was warranted, and if the RedHawks (3-3, 0-0) are a great team, then that made the Scarlet Knights (3-2, 0-0) an excellent team on Sunday afternoon, as No. 11 Rutgers came away with a walloping 6-1 win.
An impressive four different Knights scored in the game, and senior midfielder Guillermina Causarano posted a hat trick.
Freshman forward Sophie Kuiper started the scoring approximately 5 minutes in, sending one into the back of the net for her 1st career goal. Kuiper had her attempt stopped initially, but she stuck with the play and wound up sneaking the ball past the goalkeeper.
Just 6 minutes later, Causarano made it 2-0, thanks to some beautiful passing from Rutgers that resulted in an assist for Kuiper. The goal was Causarano's 3rd of the season, but it would not be her last of the day.
Miami answered back at the start of the second quarter with a goal from Henriette Schlueter, scoring one past the Knights' redshirt senior goalkeeper Sophia Howard. Howard would log three saves throughout the rest of the game, adding to her season total, which now stands at 16.
Things would go quiet for the rest of the first half until the Rutgers offense exploded after the halftime break.
Causarano had her fingerprints on all 3 goals scored in the third, assisting graduate student forward Kara Heck on the 1st, then tallying the next 2 goals herself. Causarano received assists from Kuiper and senior midfielder Ashley Arnold on her pair of scores and now has 5 goals in just as many games.
A quiet fourth quarter filled with substitutions was capped off by freshman midfielder Anna Cogdell's 1st career goal. Senior midfielder Lucy Bannatyne assisted on the tally off a penalty corner pass, bringing the final score to 6-1.
Causarano's four points were a career-high, and her hat trick was the second of her career.
The Knights will now rest until Friday, when they head to College Park, Maryland. The mighty top-five-ranked Maryland squad awaits Rutgers as the game will be each team's Big Ten opener.
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