Defense Does It -- Field Hockey Downs Northwestern 1-0 -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

RUSS'S SCORE ENOUGH AS FIELD HOCKEY BLANKS NORTHWESTERN FOR SOWRY'S 100TH WIN AT UOFL 

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

Louisville Field Hockey takes on top 10 competition in Trager Stadium, gets a lone score by Bethany Russ and wins 1-0. Coach Justine Sowry gets her 100th. win as head coach of the UofL Field Hockey squad. 

Not exactly a carbon copy of the Cards win over Boston College on Friday, but Louisville "held pitch" and the defense looked spectacular in defeating #11 Northwestern Sunday afternoon during their final game of the four-game home stand. 

This win started as a tightly played defensive struggle for the first 20 minutes. Then, the Cards got their second penalty corner opportunity of the first half, Whena Munn in-bounded to Russ, who powered a shot toward the net that glanced off a Northwestern player's stick and into the goal. The second straight week she's scored and it ultimately proved to be all Louisville needed offensively. 

Jared Anderson' catches the strength
of the Trager water cannons. 

Northwestern was relentless on the attack in the first half and earned six penalty corners. Senior, best-in-the-world goalkeeper Ayeshia McFerran got one save in those attempts and defender Meghan Schneider was there to prevent another scoring attempt from the Wildcats. The Cards took a tenuous, single goal advantage into the water-cannon break at the half. 

The Cards intensified their offensive pressure in the second half and had eight shot attempts, compared to the Evanston, Illinois opponents one. Louisville also got three penalty corner attempts in that final 35 minutes and the Wildcats none. The ball wouldn't go in for either side, though, and Northwestern pulled their goalkeeper out of the contest with about five minutes remaining to gain the attack advantage on the Cardinals. 

It didn't matter. 

Louisville's defensive held strong and true and preserved the lead to go 6-2 on the season.  Coach Justine Sowry offered this about the second half: 

"I thought it was a little better in the second half. The game management was very impressive. They (Northwestern) had it coming at us. The biggest piece for on the day for me was our defensive play in the defensive 30 and our red zone tackling of the ball outside the circle. We didn't want to give up corners today and, besides a couple of undisciplined moments, we did a tremendous job.


We offer you the UofL, You Tube post game interview below, as well as our longer, uncut version: 

JUSTINE SOWRY POST GAME VIDEO

CARDINAL COUPLE'S POST GAME SOWRY AUDIO


We also got audio and video from red-shirt sophomore Meghan Schneider, whose big defensive stop helped preserve the shut-out: 


MEGHAN SCHNEIDER POST-GAME VIDEO


MEGHAN SCHNEIDER POST_GAME AUDIO FROM CARDINAL COUPLE


As an added attraction, we also offer this highlights clip of the contest: 


HIGHLIGHTS FROM NORTHWESTERN VS. LOUISVILLE



Louisville hits the highway for three out of their next four. First stop, a visit to Winston-Salem, NC to face Wake Forest on Friday, Sept. 21st. We're not sure just how much damage that Hurricane Flo is going to drop on that area of North Carolina, and our thoughts and prayers are with those residents (including a significant number of Sykes family members who live in the Burlington, Haw River and Durham, NC areas). 



(Special thanks to Jared Anderson on the field hockey and football pics for today's article. Need a great and inexpensive photographer? Jared IS YOUR MAN!! Find out more about him and his work at his website...https://www.jdaphotos.com/ ) 



NOBODY ASKED ME, BUT...(WELL, ACTUALLY THEY DID).

It seemed like Sunday was a day to ask Paulie about Louisville Football wherever I went. Mind you, I don't cover football, I'm a fan and sit in my seat and try to stay positive. We're a UofL women's sports site. A LOT of UofL women's sports fans were asking me questions, though...so here's my 26 cents worth :

MY FIVE POSITIVES ON THE WESTERN KENTUCKY GAME: 

-- Malik Cunningham led the Cards to 14 - 4th. quarter points. He may not be quite ready for prime time football yet, but he's 2-0 and showed some sparkle.

-- Dae Williams looked pretty impressive running the ball in the few opportunities he got. Why the Cards didn't go to him in the red-zone more often is anyone's guess.

-- We got a kicking game. Two nice field goals from Blanton Creque. 

-- Rodjay Burns got a chance to shine again at punt return and broke one for 36 yards.

-- Tabarious Peterson looked OK at outside linebacker with six tackles. 

MY FIVE NEGATIVES ON THE WESTERN KENTUCKY GAME: 

-- The Cardinal defensive secondary needs a lot of work. Not an exemplary showing Saturday night for those guys.

-- Pre-Season, it was mentioned that this might be the best core of wide-receivers Louisville has had in a decade. I don't think so, at least not yet, from what I saw in the stands. Too many drops. 

-- After spending the entire off-season building an offense around Puma Pass, that's been a disappointment so far. Whoever said we might be a better football team this year without Lamar Jackson...uh, time to take your meds again. I don't see it. 

-- The Cardinal offensive line is playing pretty badly. 

-- UofL needs to extend the $3 beer until halftime. 

Our buddy Charlie Springer, over at UofL Card Game, always has a unique and informative take on Cardinal Football. Check out his thoughts at his site. Link below:

www.uoflcardgame.com

If you want another great insight to Louisville football, please check out Mike Gilpatrick's fine site....RIVER CITY CARDS...for his takes and analysis on the quarterback battle and his "grade" for the Cards: LINK below.

(Picture is of Mike doing his best "Bobby" impression from the stands...only "Gilly" would think of trying something like that.)

http://www.rivercitycards.com/


Carry on, Cardinal fans! 





paulie
xxxxx