The deceptive motion by Sarles plus the quickness of her leftward pass gave Scott just enough time to fire a promising shot to the left corner of the goal. Big Green keeper Brittany D'Augustine, who had been in position for a shot to the right, suddenly dove left in desperation to stop the low shot by Scott. But Scott had flicked the ball with just enough force and just enough height that it deflected up off the top of D'Augustine's outstretched stick and into the net.
"That's the way that play was meant to be executed," Coach Sue Caples. "It didn't look as pretty when we ran it on grass against Providence."
The play to Scott has suddenly become the Crimson's most effective on the penalty corner. Before Wednesday, the option had never worked.
"We've improved with a lot of repetitions," Caples said. "We've started to connect. We're smoothing the pass out and figuring out the proper timing between the stop and the hit."
The Crimson did not hesitate to cash in on Dartmouth's shock after giving up the initial goal. Before the Big Green announcers even finished announcing Scott's goal to the crowd, senior forward Kate Nagle and sophomore forward Philomena Gambale had already teamed up for goal number two.
The Big Green defenders learned first-hand that Gambale is a scoring threat whenever she controls the ball with open space to work with, however narrow. She appeared to be outnumbered as she rushed towards the circle and was met by three Dartmouth defenders. But Gambale merely darted in between them and around them while maintaining complete control of herself.
And just when she looked as if she had lost control of the ball, she found a way to cross the ball in front of the mouth of the net, where Kate Nagle deflected it in for her team-leading eighth goal of the season.
Gambale is the Crimson's No. 2 scorer on the season, despite having started only one game all year. Caples' strategy of holding her back then letting her loose has produced big results.
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