ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College field hockey team took on rival SUNY Cortland under the lights at Higgins Stadium on Wednesday evening, September 15, and the Red Dragons defeated the Bombers, 2-1, on a late fourth quarter goal. With the loss, Ithaca falls to 3-2 on the season, while Cortland, which was receiving votes in this week's NFHCA Top 20 Poll, improves to 5-0.

It was a battle for both teams to produce any offense early on, as neither team was able to take a shot over the opening eight minutes of action. Cortland was the first team to create an opportunity, as the Red Dragons earned a corner and fired off two shots in succession – one was blocked and the other saved by Macy Brandwein.

After another corner attempt for Cortland just 1:20 later, the Bombers responded with their first scoring change of the night 12:44 into the first. Natalie Descalso fired off a shot from close range, which was saved and then bounced off the far post. Morgan Mullen was right there to collect to rebound and beat Cortland's goalkeeper to give the Bombers a 1-0 lead.

The remainder of the first half played out with just one shot on goal from either team – an attempt from Victoria Sestito off a corner with under two minutes remaining.

Early in the third quarter, Cortland knotted the game up at 1-1. Hanna Corrigan fired off a shot just 1:19 into the stanza, which was thwarted by Brandwein, but the deflection went right back to Corrigan, and she tied the game up seven seconds later.

The Bombers seemed destined to equalize the contest in the final period of play as IC took four shots within a 5:23 span. Arla Davis recorded all four of those shots, two of which were saved, and the other two creeped just wide of frame.

Just 1:15 later, Cortland marched down the right side of the field and sent a centering pass from the corner into the center of the circle. Keirra Ettere corralled the centering pass and distributed an easy feed to Corrigan, who gave Cortland a 2-1 lead on her second goal of the night with under three minutes remaining.

Over the final minute of action, Ithaca took two more shots and earned two corners, but could not tie the game up to send things to overtime.

IC outshot Cortland, 12-6, and corners were even at 5-5.

The Bombers welcome SUNY Geneseo to Higgins Stadium on Saturday, September 18 for a 1 p.m. contest.