ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College field hockey team was back in action at Higgins Stadium on Thursday evening when it faced a familiar foe in old Empire 8 Conference rival St. John Fisher. Although matters were tightly contested early, the Cardinals scored once in the first half and twice more after the break en route to a 3-0 defeat of the Bombers.
 
Ithaca entered Thursday's contest looking to settle a score with its former Empire 8 compatriot. Fisher entered the tilt winners of the last three contests in the series, which began relatively recently in the formation of the Cardinals' program in 2011. Sadly, IC was hemmed in its own zone throughout much of the 70 minutes, as Fisher out-shot the Bombers 25-to-4 in the game. Although IC pushed back with strong defense and excellent goalkeeping from freshman Ariyahna Bernard, the attacking pressure of the visitors was too much to bear in sending IC to its seventh straight defeat.
 
The opening minutes of the game proved to be quite evenly matched. Bernard was sharp early to deny two Fisher shots in the first 15 minutes, while on the other end senior midfielder Amanda Schell had two attempts at cage drift narrowly wide of the cage.
 
The visitor's breakthrough came in the 21^st minute. The Cardinals strategy from the outset was to send long hard shots from far outside the attacking zone in the hope of finding deflections inside the circle. Fisher executed the strategy on the scoring tally, as Bre Socker sent a long hard pass towards goal. Kelly Bergamo corralled the hot shot and, despite having a defender marking her perfectly, Bergamo was able to whip a sneaky backhand shot between the legs of Bernard to make the score 1-0.
 
Fisher fired four more shots on goal during the final 15 minutes of the half in search of a second score before the break. Bernard played extremely well, denying Bergamo and Alyssa Andres in rapid fire succession with 50-seconds remaining in the frame. She finished the half by stonewalling Socker off of a penalty corner opportunity with 30-seconds left. Bernard finished with six saves in the opening 35 minutes.
 
The Cardinals nearly doubled the lead just five minutes into the second session. Bernard made another save on Bergamo, but had the rebound sent off the post by Fisher's leading scorer Emily Markarian. The play foreshadowed what would be a challenging half for the Bombers against the visitor's relentless attack.
 
Five minutes after the close call, more strong goalkeeping and defending kept the deficit to just one goal. Bernard stopped Socker on a shot at the left post, but the rebound caromed across the goal-mouth to Markarian on the far side. She lifted a chip shot towards cage, but junior back Kimmy Briscoe was there to swat the shot away, before it could enter the vacated cage.
 
With just over 10 minutes remaining, Markarian finally got the breakthrough she had been so close to achieving earlier in the half. Picking up possession of the ball near midfield, she sprinted towards the IC end with possession on a semi-breakaway. Fisher's player made a deft curl-and-drag deke to get past Bernard, before swatting the shot into the cage to make it 2-0. Reghan Amoroso added a third tally with 6:20 left to play, pushing the ball just over the goal line on a cage-front scrum.
 
In an effort to break the ice on the scoreboard, Ithaca pulled Bernard in favor of a kicking back with 3:06 remaining. Unfortunately, the Bombers were never able to gain significant possession in the attacking end to mount one final charge. Bernard finished with 11 saves in the defeat, while junior Maddie Keppel also joined Briscoe in finishing with one defensive save.
 
The Bombers conclude the 2017 season on Saturday, October 28, when it welcomes Brockport to Higgins Stadium for a 1:00 p.m. start. Ithaca will honor its 2017 senior class in a pre-game ceremony.