Field hockey: Defense comes up huge as John Jay-Cross River blanks Rye 3-0

CROSS RIVER — Defenders sometimes fly under the radar, going largely unnoticed despite solid or even outstanding play.

Tuesday, in a battle between the John Jay-Cross River and Rye field hockey teams, John Jay's Kayla Magier found herself on center stage — twice — in her team's 3-0 win.

Magier's goal off a Jane Brennan assist on a penalty corner expanded the Wolves' lead over Rye to 2-0 in the third quarter before Magier came up huge with a save behind her goaltender early in the fourth quarter to preserve that two-goal cushion. John Jay (7-0-1), ranked fourth in this week's lohud rankings , would score once more in the last 9 minutes.

Takeaways

Rye, which fell to 5-2, did a lot of good things outside of scoring.

Garnets goalie Chloe Holden, playing only her second game after returning from a concussion, had 10 saves.

Included was a fine, aggressive sliding stop about a minute before Magier scored.

Sienna Myers also had some good takeaways for Rye, including one that led to a Rye shot that was turned aside by Wolves keeper Molly Gallagher.

Gallagher was credited with only three saves but had multiple clears to help keep Rye off the board.

Key plays

The game was scoreless until Logan Bueti's goal off a penalty corner with just 1:17 left in the first half.

Magier was on the right post when scoring John Jay's second goal, which came with 2:08 left in the third quarter.

Assigned to offensive penalty corners just this season, the senior's score was her second this fall off a corner.

Her great defensive stop came after Gallagher made a stop off a Rye penalty corner.

The Wolves iced the game in the fourth quarter when Kaycie Keeley, who had a terrific game with multiple pickoffs, took the ball away from Rye in Rye's defensive zone and fired a shot on goal. Teammate Sophia Shaw deflected the hot shot in.

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They said it

Magier credited her save to working well with Gallagher.

"Me and my goalie have such a big connection. I'm an extension of her," she said.

Magier also pointed to her fellow defenders as having strong games in the shooting circle and to her "amazing" midfield teammates, who, she said, got back on defense to stop multiple Rye offensive runs before the Garnets got into the circle.

Both teams will face stiff competition again this week with John Jay taking on No. 2 Lakeland and Rye playing No. 1 Mamaroneck.

Keeley said her team would take the same approach against Lakeland as it had vs. Rye and "just play our game and stay strong."

Rye coach Kelly Vegliante said, "I thought for sure we were going to come back."

But she blamed her team's inability to "connect and finish," specifically citing instances where the ball off her players' sticks.

But she was happy with her team's effort.

"They kept fighting, fighting, fighting. That's one thing about this team," Vegliante said.

Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, skiing, basketball, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at @HaggertyNancy .

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Field hockey: Defense comes up huge as John Jay-Cross River blanks Rye 3-0