With 4.7 seconds remaining at the Rowan Soccer and Lacrosse Complex on Wednesday, Elaina Corson lined up for a free position opportunity.
The Profs trailed, 9-6, after three quarters of action against Stockton in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) semifinals, but now, a game that had Rowan trailing after every quarter was irrelevant. With the game on Corson’s stick, she fired a shot to the top left, taking a, 12-11, lead with 2.6 remaining.
From there, Rowan ran out the clock and earned the comeback win, after trailing from, 2-1, all the way to the 4.7 mark in the final quarter.
“I was like, ‘I have to make this or else I don’t know what I’m going to do,’” said Corson. “I practice eight meters all the time. In warm ups, at practice before games. I just knew I had to put that one away.”
Head coach Lindsay Delaney knew exactly where Corson was going to shoot.
“It’s Elaina, she’s going top left corner,” said Delaney. “She has one shot, she rips it, we all know, she reps it out. It’s the same shot Michelle Lubrano had when Michelle was here. I tell them all the time on free positions, you need to have two shots in your pocket, and you need to know which ones are yours.”
The Profs scored three goals in the last 49 seconds of the game, two of which coming from senior Fiona Lockhart, bringing the game within one at the 49 second mark and tying it 25 seconds later to tie it at 11.
Lockhart didn’t even get to watch the live stream of last year’s NJAC semifinal, because of surgery due to an arm injury she suffered in the regular season. Now, one year later, she’s a large reason they’ll go to Saturday’s NJAC final.
“It means the world,” said Lockhart. “I’m just thankful for every second I get to play at this point, knowing I didn’t have these opportunities last year. It brings me tears of happiness, because I’m so glad that I’m here and I get to experience these things.”
Rowan was held scoreless in the second quarter of the game, and trailed 6-1 at halftime.
“I told the seniors this is on the team,” said Delaney. “There’s eight of them out there. They have to play with conviction. … I said ‘You have to play with conviction.’ And I think they did. We made the defensive stands that we needed to, and there’s no one better with 4.2 seconds.”
The win for Delaney comes as the 200th in her career. She’s already the winningest coach in program history, surpassing Mary Marino last season.
“[Marino] called me an hour called me an hour and a half before the game,” said Delaney. “I talked to her almost every other day. Her and Penny have been like ‘my people.’ I’m really proud to have them in my life, and hope I can emulate parts of them. I got a good program 19 years ago and I was asked to make it great. It wasn’t a broken program, it was a good program, great foundation.”
Marino and Penny Kempf are not the only great coaches that have been in Delaney’s life. She played for Sandy Ritter as a Collingswood high school field hockey player, and went on to play for Marino and Kempf as a lacrosse and field hockey player at Rowan. Her father, Thomas Hanson, a Glassboro State alumni, was a 33-year educator and football coach.
“I’ve been lucky,” said Delaney. “My dad was never an X’s and O’s coach. He was always about them. I had a bad moment on Saturday when we lost to TCNJ and I called one of my dad’s alum’s, Troy Branch, who’s been like my brother. … It’s about culture and the culture of caring about people. And at the end of the day, making sure that they know that they can make mistakes and still be loved.”
Now, Rowan has one more chance to beat The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) on Saturday in the NJAC Championship. Rowan fell to the Lions, 14-7, in the regular season finale. The Profs are looking to beat TCNJ for the first time since 2010.
The way to do it, in Delaney’s eyes, is simple.
“Choosing to,” said Delaney. “It’s always a choice.”
The NJAC Championship game is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday on TCNJ’s campus.
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