YORK, Pa. – The York College field hockey team received an overtime goal by freshman Lindsay Nye (Duncannon, Pa. / Susquenita) to cap off a thrilling back-and-forth battle with a victory against Dickinson College on Wednesday evening at Kinsley Field.

Nye's game-winner started with a 2-on-0 with the Red Devil goalkeeper when Autumn Mallory (Leonardtown, Md. / Leonardtown) broke free from the defense on the left wing. Mallory drew the attention of the keeper and then fed a pass across to the right where Nye filled in the empty space and knocked a shot into the yawning net for game's final tally.

Nye finished the game with a season-high two goals on five shots on goal, while Mallory finished with a career-high two assists.

Dickinson (6-2) put the pressure on York early with a goal less than 10 minutes into the contest. The Red Devils' leading scorer, Catherine Perlmutter, sliced threw the Spartan defense from the top of the circle, put a deke on the keeper to the right and finished with shot to the left corner.

The Red Devils sustained the offensive pressure through out the first half as they out-shot York 9-4, but the Spartans managed to limit the damage to just one goal.

Only facing a one-goal deficit, the Spartans looked to flip the script in the second half as they tallied a pair of goals less two minutes apart 10 minutes into the half.

Ali Posey (Airville, Pa. / Red Lion) tallied the first goal as she capped off a great team effort which lead to the goal. Beth Patrick (Pitman, N.J. / Pitman) started the play as she sent a crisp through ball up the middle to spring Mallory past the Dickinson defense. Mallory had a breakaway, but got tripped up as she attempted to maneuver past the charging keeper and managed to slip a pass to the right where Posey stepped in to collect the pass and finish for the goal.

The Spartans used another collective effort on their next goal that they scored off a penalty corner. Morgan Weaver (Ephrata, Pa. / Ephrata) started the play by inserting a short pass to the low left wing to Posey who ripped a shot to the right post where Nye played a perfectly placed deflection into the back of the cage.

York managed to hold on to its one-goal lead through nearly 10 minutes of the second half due to the strong goalkeeping effort of freshman Ty McCloskey (Egg Harbor Township, N.J. / Egg Harbor) who made her first start of the season. McCloskey made six saves in the second half as she faced 10 total shots. The freshman keeper finished with nine saves, the most by any Spartan goalkeeper this season.

Despite the effort from McCloskey and the defensive unit, the Red Devils managed to strike again with another goal by Perlmutter with less than 20 minutes left to play. Perlmutter received an assist from Taylor Meehan who fed a pass from the right to the middle after collecting a rebound from her shot that was saved.

Nye had a chance to put the Spartans ahead with less than two minutes left to play as she had a good look at the goal from the right wing, but sent her shot just right of the cage.

The Spartans had to hold their breaths as the Red Devils earned three penalty corners inside the last minute, including two inside the final 15 seconds, but the Spartan defense stepped up to the challenge and kept Dickinson off the board.

The strong defensive stand by York to end regulation boosted the Spartans' confidence and set the table for the offensive heroics in overtime.

Dickinson finished with a 19-12 shot advantage and a 15-9 advantage in penalty corners, but York owned a 9-7 advantage in saves.

The Spartans return to action on Saturday when the host No. 13 Mary Washington at 12:30 p.m. on Kinsley Field.

Photo courtesy of Joe Rodgers