Salem State Comes Up Short

Jose Rodriguez '24, Staff Writer | Media & Communications

SALEM, Mass. -- On Tuesday night at Alumni Field, the Salem State Vikings suffered a 3-2 loss against the Nichols Bison. With this defeat, the Vikings' record becomes 0-4-1, while the Bison improve to 2-3. 

Prior to the game, coach Wood expressed her team's strategy to minimize the effectiveness of the Bison's play. "They worked hard. Their coach is one of the best coaches that I know and she has it very organized. I think that there is an advantage playing at home. They do have a pretty small field at Nichols, they are able to keep things very competitive there. I am hoping we can get into our offense earlier."  

In the game's opening minutes, the Vikings struck first with a goal scored by Savanah Scrodin (Mount Abraham, Vt.), with an assist from Olivia Henke (Holbrooke, N.Y.), giving Salem State an early 1-0 lead. Scordin later shared her thoughts on the goal she scored. "Yeah, it was a really great start to the game. It gave us some excitement to get the next goal as it became a back and forth game, but we were right there with them."  

The Bison came back strong with a goal from Grace Killman (Medway, Mass.), assisted by Alana Snow (Watertown, Conn.), tying the game at one apiece. Both teams soon became very aggressive, attacking each other's zones.  

During the game, both the Bison's Falyn Hunt (Sagus, Mass.) and the Vikings' Anna Latta (Southbury, Conn.) had close calls with scoring, with Latta having a breakaway opportunity stopped by the Bison's goalie, Adie Hughes (Hampden, Mass.). She made a dive to prevent the shot from going in. Lily Pfefferle (St. Paul, Minn.) also made a great save, keeping the score at bay.  

With just five minutes left in the first half, Huda Ngoynkulu  (Sheffield, Mass.) scored her first collegiate goal, with an assist from Jenna Meitza (Tyngsboro, Mass.), giving Salem State a 2-1 lead. 

Coach Wood talked about Ngoynkulu's goal after the game. "She is one of those kids that does whatever we ask her to do, and she has the composure that is needed to score one of those goals where it looks easy, but it's not. She put it exactly where she needed to. I have seen professional players shoot that. I am really happy for her, just a hard worker that we are all really excited for."       

However, with just 12 seconds left in the first half, Caroline Shields (Mashpee, Mass) scored for Nichols, tying the game at two apiece. At the conclusion of the first half, the Bison had 14 shots on goal, while the Vikings had 6 shots on goal.  

Sydney Durkin (Dracut, Mass.) made her return after missing a few games due to injury. Coach Wood shared her thoughts on Durkin's return. "She played on Saturday, but didn't get a lot of minutes. She was still getting her legs under her, but I think tonight it was her best game. It was huge for sure, we got so much offense out of her it was really important for her to show up like that."  

At the start of the second period, the Bison changed their goalie, with Saige Frazier (Uxbridge, Mass.) taking over. 

In the second half of the game, the Bison team played more aggressively, and it paid off when Natalie Gray (Mystic, Conn.) scored a goal, assisted by Jenna Condon (East Bridgewater, Mass.), giving the Bison a 3-2 lead. The goal was made at the 51:11 minute mark of the game. Later on during the period, Pfefferle made an impressive save, limiting any further damage that could have been inflicted by the Nichols team.  In fact, she made several difficult saves throughout the game. Despite being in the Nichols zone, the Salem State team was unable to capitalize and tie the score.

As the game progressed, both teams became more aggressive and had several opportunities to increase their lead. With 16 minutes left in regulation time, Snow hit the crossbar, nearly giving the Bison team some insurance. With the clock ticking down, Nichols continued to attack the Vikings' zone.    

Looking ahead, Salem State will be hosting a conference game against Fitchburg State, with the game time set for 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.