Trailing by six goals early in the second quarter, No. 2 Northwestern’s long-held dominance on its home turf began to crumble under the pressure of No. 1 Boston College’s blistering attack.
The Wildcats (2-1, 0-0 Big Ten) found themselves at an unfamiliar crossroads — just twice in the past 47 consecutive home wins had they lagged behind an opponent after the first quarter, dating back to March 2020.
But Saturday, they confronted an uphill battle from the opening draw.
The last time NU faced a similar deficit during a regular season game at home was Feb. 19, 2023, when the hosts trailed by three goals after 15 minutes in another heated tussle with the Eagles. That day, coach Kelly Amonte Hiller’s squad mounted a comeback with a 15-14 victory.
This time, however, Boston College’s early cushion proved insurmountable.
Despite NU’s fight to stay in contention as the game progressed, the Eagles claimed a 13-9 win, ending the ’Cats’ long-standing undefeated record at home.
Junior attacker Madison Taylor and senior midfielder Emerson Bohlig each recorded hat tricks in the loss.
“All top teams tend to come out strong, but I’m glad we didn’t let it define us,” Amonte Hiller said postgame.
After an opening period that saw the visitors dominate on both sides of the field — holding the ‘Cats to just four shots, compared to their 10 — NU slowly started to creep back into the conversation.
Fresh off its first draw control of the second quarter, the ’Cats looked to get the ball to their leading scorer and reigning Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week, Taylor, who was held to zero shots in the opening 15 minutes.
As Bohlig passed the ball to Taylor at the top of the goal circle, Taylor looked to evade an aggressive sea of Eagle defenders, who were shading her to the right in hopes of keeping her from an open look across the middle.
Dodging one-on-one coverage by Boston College freshman Kaitlyn Cole, Taylor peeled off around a second defender and dove in front of the goal to find the back of the net.
Just 53 seconds later, graduate student attacker Riley Campbell buried a goal of her own on a free position opportunity to make it 6-2.
In a second quarter that would become the highest-scoring frame for both squads, each side scored two more goals before halftime.
Making her first appearance after missing NU’s first two games this season, graduate transfer goalkeeper Delaney Sweitzer saved just one of the Eagles’ nine shots on goal in the first half.
“She hasn’t been in that game situation in a little while,” Amonte Hiller said. “I think that as the game wore on, she was able to learn from the way they were playing and come up with some big plays for us at some appropriate times.”
Sweitzer’s four second-half saves allowed NU to keep the game close into the final minutes, contributing to the visitors’ 21-minute scoring drought that persisted throughout the third and fourth quarters as the ’Cats rattled off four unanswered goals.
The hosts’ best chance came when they were down 10-8 with just over nine minutes on the clock. Graduate student defender Jane Hansen snagged a ground ball, and NU took it down the field, passing back and forth on the offensive end in hopes of drawing out graduate student attacker Niki Miles’ yellow card penalty.
With an eight-second discrepancy between the shot clock and the penalty expiration that would allow NU to get back to even strength, Amonte Hiller’s group didn’t pick up the pace of their attack until it had just about 20 seconds to shoot.
By the time Miles made her way back onto the field, Taylor was trapped behind the net when she fired a late pass to sophomore midfielder Taylor Lapointe, who couldn’t get a shot off before time expired, as she tried to muscle her way through heavy traffic.
Following a nearly seven-and-a-half-minute scoring drought for both teams, the ’Cats and their opponents traded goals within 36 seconds of one another, and the score held at 11-9 with 3:29 left to play. But two Eagle goals in the final two minutes made the loss look more convincing than it appeared to be for most of the fourth quarter.
“We need to start faster and finish stronger,” Amonte Hiller said.
Email: audreypachuta2027@u.northwestern.edu
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