UTICA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College field hockey team was back on the road on Wednesday night when it traveled to Utica for the final game of the team's season-opening three-game road swing. The road continued to be friendly and favorable for the Bombers, who utilized a furious fourth quarter rally to remain unbeaten on the young season in a 2-1 triumph over the Pioneers.
 
In stark contrast to this past weekend in which IC ran roughshod in impressive and convincing wins over Cabrini and Drew, the Bombers received their first true test of the year on Wednesday. Utica pushed the pace of play for the majority of the first three quarters, but IC showed its grit in guile to pull out the comeback victory. Trailing 1-0 through 45-minutes, Ithaca launched a furious rally during the final 15-minutes to flip the contest on its head. The Bombers connected for two goals in the final quarter to complete the thrilling comeback, propelling Ithaca to its first 3-0 start since the 2013 season.
 
The story for the majority of the night was the strong goalkeeping of senior captain Savanna Lenker who turned in her best outing of the year. IC's rock in the cage delivered a masterful effort to keep a motivated Utica outfit at bay. Lenker posted seven stops, while sophomore back Allison Egan helped out the effort with a defensive save in the first quarter to keep things scoreless. However, IC found itself chasing the game heading into the final quarter when Samantha Whitehouse finally broke the scoreless deadlock with 1:53 to play in the third quarter.
 
The Pioneers looked to have full control heading into the final 15 minutes. The hosts held an 11-to-1 advantage in penalty corners, as well as hefty leads of 14-to-5 in shot attempts and 8-to-2 leads in shots on goal. However, the game script totally flipped on its head when play got underway in the fourth quarter. IC put together a dominant final frame, outshooting Utica 8-to-2 all of which were on goal, while Ithaca earned five corners to Utica's one to set the stage for the comeback.
 
Sophomore midfielder Jacqueline Mirabile got Ithaca back on level terms 2:52 into the fourth quarter. Ithaca came out on the front foot to begin the final quarter, forcing three early penalty corners. The visitors finally capitalized on the third corner of the sequence. Sophomores Grace Ziehnert and Morgan Mullen both had shots denied by Utica keeper Megan Chamberlain, but IC kept plugging away and eventually had the hard work rewarded. After Mullen's initial shot was parried away with the leg pad, Mullen was able to shuffle the ball to open space to an unmarked Mirabile who slapped a shot into the yawning cage to knot the score at 1-1.
 
The score would remain deadlocked deep into the fourth despite significant pressure by the Bombers. It was IC's other senior Kendall Keil that delivered the heroics late-on for Ithaca. Working on its fifth and final penalty corner of the quarter, Mirabile inserted to Keil on the near left side of the attacking arc. Keil fired an initial shot that was stopped, but the senior corralled the rebound before the defense could organize and ripped the game-winner into the lower left corner.
 
Ithaca will be back in action on Saturday, September 7, when it hosts Misericordia in the team's 2019 home opener at Higgins Stadium. Start time for the contest is set for 1:00 p.m.